Research driving social change
The Faculty of Arts (FoA), with over 240 full-time faculty members, is dedicated to academic excellence through rigorous, cutting-edge, and justice-centred research. Faculty scholars lead in critical fields such as democratic engagement, Indigenous governance, immigration and diaspora studies, public policy, digital literacies, health and cognitive aging, the medical humanities, climate change, and water and food security. Committed to advancing knowledge and addressing global challenges, the FoA drives research that shapes policy, informs practice, and fosters innovation across disciplines. The faculty’s research ecosystem is further strengthened by its specialized research centres, including the Yellowhead Institute, the Modern Literatures and Cultures Research Centre, the HOPE Centre for Sexual and Gender Minority People, the Centre for the Digital Humanities, the Psychology Research and Training Centre, and the Institute for Stress and Wellbeing Research.
“The Faculty of Arts is a hub of transformative research, innovation, and impact. With a steadfast commitment to justice, knowledge, and progress, our scholars challenge the status quo, uncover new insights, and drive meaningful change in communities worldwide. From advancing democratic engagement and Indigenous governance to tackling climate change and health disparities, our faculty members and research centres are shaping the future. Together, we are pushing boundaries, redefining possibilities, and inspiring the next generation of leaders, thinkers, and changemakers.” - Melanie Knight, interim Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies.
$64M in external research funding since 2019
3770+ scholarly publications since 2019
79+ partnerships with research institutes, hospitals, foundations, non-profits, and societies
CERC in Migration and Integration and CRCs in Sex, Gender and Diversity and Brain Health; and Indigenous Political Resurgence
450+ creative works since 2019
43+ collaborations with government ministries, industry, and international commissions/universities
CERC and CRCs
Dr. Anna Triandafyllidou
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration
Dr. Natasha Rajah
Tier I - Canada Research Chair in Sex, Gender and Diversity in Brain Health, Memory and Aging
Dr. Damien Lee
Tier II - Canada Research Chair in Biskaabiiyang and Indigenous Political Resurgence
Research Spotlights
Criminology
Dr. Anne-Marie Singh
What does crime look like? Do you envision justice as a perfectly balanced scale? How does criminological theory shape what we see? The Visualizing Crim Project combines criminological theories with rare archival photos to illustrate the power of theory in understanding crime and justice. This initiative is a collaboration between Dr. Anne-Marie Singh, Dr. Reena Tandon, CELT and The Image Centre (external link) Collection at Toronto Metropolitan University. Another key project, Criminal Justice Firsts, serves as both a teaching and research resource, documenting the experiences of Indigenous and racialized individuals who were among the first to enter policing, corrections, legal practice, and the judiciary. This project is co-directed by Dr. Anne-Marie Singh and Mandissa Arlain.
English
Dr. Nima Naghibi
Dr. Naghibi’s research focuses on diasporic Iranian women’s life narratives and the intersection of Western and Iranian feminisms in the 20th century. A recent SSHRC Insight Grant enables Naghibi and Moghadam (co-PIs) to record and digitize the life narratives of Toronto’s Iranian community. This project employs creative and innovative research methods to capture the diverse experiences of Iranian immigration to the city. As part of this initiative, they are developing a digitized map of Tehranto, offering a new platform to document and visualize diasporic Iranian experiences.
Geography and Environmental Studies
Dr. Claire Oswald
Dr. Claire Oswald’s research focuses on catchment hydrology and water quality, examining how water moves through landscapes and the factors that influence its quality. Her work spans diverse environments, from the Boreal forests of northwestern Ontario to constructed wetlands in the Alberta Oil Sands Region and urbanizing watersheds in south-central Ontario. As a member of The Watershed Hydrology Research Group, Dr. Oswald investigates the effects of climate change, land use, and pollution on freshwater systems. Her research integrates field studies, remote sensing, and hydrological modeling to understand how natural and human-driven changes impact water availability and ecosystem health. She is particularly interested in developing strategies to improve water resource management and mitigate environmental risks in both pristine and heavily altered landscapes.
History
Dr. Janam Mukherjee
Dr. Janam Mukherjee’s research explores the complex intersections of war, famine, social upheaval, and civil violence in mid-20th-century Bengal. His book, Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire, draws on extensive archival and oral history research to reveal the structural links between colonial policies, economic exploitation, and humanitarian crises. Through this work, he provides a critical re-examination of the Bengal Famine of 1943 and its lasting impacts on the region. Dr. Mukherjee has published and presented widely on famine, war, and colonial violence in India, contributing to broader comparative famine studies. His expertise extends beyond academia, engaging with public history and media. Most recently, he served as the primary historical advisor for the award-winning BBC Radio 4 documentary series Three Million, which examines the Bengal Famine of 1943. He is also featured in the series, offering critical insights into one of the most devastating humanitarian crises of the 20th century. For more on the series, visit: BBC Three Million (external link) .
International Economics and Finance
Dr. Nicholas Li
Dr. Nicholas Li (external link) 's work examines how trade costs, competition, and government policies interact to influence prices, consumption, and welfare. His research has been published in leading journals such as the American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of the European Economic Association, and Journal of International Economics. Additionally, his work has been featured in policy-oriented forums including the Canadian Federal Budget, CD Howe Institute, Ideas4India, VoxEU, Cato Institute, and major Canadian newspapers. Dr. Li's recent research focuses on retail, distribution, and food insecurity in Canada's remote northern communities. He has also analyzed the effects of border effects and global competition shocks on retail and manufacturing firms in Canada, as well as the impact of policies and trade frictions on household nutrition, labor supply, and agricultural production in India.
Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Dr. Ndeye Ba
Dr. Ba's research primarily explores postcolonial dynamics, linguistic equity, and plurilingualism, focusing on the intersections of language, power, identity, and literature. Her work examines how literary plurilingualism functions both as an aesthetic and a political project, interrogating the relationships between language, power, identity, politics, gender, and literature. She investigates how Europhone literature—particularly from Africa and the Caribbean—serves as a hermeneutic of resistance. Dr. Ba has published in journals such as Voix Plurielles, French Cultural Studies, Recherches Francophones, African Journal of Literatures and Humanities, and Lettres et Langues. She has also contributed to publications by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Philosophy
Dr. Jennifer Komorowski
Dr. Jennifer Komorowski’s research lies at the intersection of Lacanian psychoanalysis, Haudenosaunee thought, and Indigenous philosophy, particularly exploring the concept of masochism as it pertains to Indigenous women. By merging these frameworks, her work delves into the complexities of identity, trauma, and resistance within Indigenous contexts. She examines how the psychological construct of masochism can reflect the broader social and political dynamics Indigenous women face, both historically and in contemporary society. She has expanded this research by engaging with women in her own community, the Oneida Nation of the Thames, conducting interviews to explore their personal experiences and perspectives. This ongoing conversation allows her to ground her theoretical work in lived reality, creating a bridge between academic research and community-based knowledge. Her work contributes to both critical theory and Indigenous scholarship, while actively fostering new educational avenues for understanding and challenging colonial narratives.
Politics and Public Administration
Dr. Miriam Anderson
Dr. Miriam Anderson’s research focuses on the role of non-state actors in international security, with a particular emphasis on women’s participation in peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction. She examines how gender dynamics influence peacebuilding efforts and the political outcomes in post-conflict societies.
Currently, Dr. Anderson is working on a project that uses social network analysis to assess the impact of gender-inclusive peace negotiations on women’s political influence in post-conflict politics. This research aims to uncover the ways in which the inclusion of women in peace negotiations may shape their political power, leadership roles, and the broader political landscape once conflicts end. By analyzing these networks, Dr. Anderson seeks to provide new insights into the long-term effects of gender equality in peace processes and the broader implications for international security.
Her work contributes to both academic theory and practical policy recommendations for promoting inclusive peacebuilding and gender equity in global conflict resolution.
Psychology
Dr. Trevor Hart
Dr. Trevor Hart’s research focuses on the intersection of physical health and psychological outcomes among people living with HIV, emphasizing the development and testing of behavioral interventions to improve sexual health, life expectancy, and overall well being. His work aims to reduce HIV and sexual risk outcomes, particularly among high-risk individuals and those living with HIV, by integrating practical solutions like counseling and behavioral therapies into healthcare settings. As Director of the HIV Prevention Lab (external link) and the HOPE Centre for Gender and Sexual Minority People (external link) at TMU, Dr. Hart leads pioneering research on health disparities in sexual and gender minority communities. The HOPE Centre, the first of its kind in Canada, combines health research with counseling solutions to improve health outcomes. Dr. Hart’s work extends beyond academia, using evidence-based approaches to inform public health policy, improve clinical practices, and empower individuals living with HIV or at risk.
Sociology
Dr. Sam Tecle
Since the 1970s, Jane and Finch, a community tucked in the corner of northwest Toronto, has been marked pejoratively as poor and working-class. Also known as a site of notoriety, danger and criminality, Tecle begins with the contentious assertion that in an ostensibly white country that touts its history of multicultural benevolence Jane and Finch is also known as a Black community. Rather than dispute this assertion, Tecle’s project begins from there, thinking and working from that Blackness asserting that Jane and Finch – this Black community in white Canada – teaches us much about Canadian urban development, resident-led community mobilization and the right not only to the city but to life. Thinking Black is core and integral to that understanding.
Research Centres/Institutes
(external link)
Yellowhead Institute (external link) is an Indigenous-led research and education centre based in the Faculty of Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University. The Institute privileges Indigenous philosophy and amplifies Indigenous voices that provide alternatives to settler colonialism in Canada today. Rooted in community networks, Yellowhead offers critical and accessible resources to support the reclamation of Indigenous land and life.
The Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH) engages in collaborative research at the critical intersection of the material and the digital, contributing to scholarly and societal knowledge about cultural objects, makers, and users.
The Psychology Research and Training Centre (PRTC), located at 105 Bond St. and completed in the Fall of 2007, occupies around 15,000 sq. feet of research and student training space on the first and second floors of the South Bond Building. The PRTC features 31 dedicated research laboratories and 18 shared bookable rooms, including research-shared observation rooms, flexible interview/research and group therapy rooms, seminar and flexible conference rooms, a graduate student lounge, and several support and research staff offices.
The Institute for Stress and Wellbeing Research is jointly funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Ryerson University. The Institute brings together a leading edge team of international researchers, clinicians, and trainees from Canada, USA, UK, and China with key skill sets in the biological, cognitive-behavioural, and subjective aspects of stress. The goal is to understand the multiple facets of stress in order to minimize its negative aspects and maximize its positive implications.
Established in 2005, the Modern Literature & Culture (MLC) Research Centre's mandate is to research the literary and cultural production in the modernist era (from 1880 to 1945), to preserve and advance modernist women’s heritage and to promote modern Canadian heritage within an international context, with a current focus on World War 1.
(external link)
HOPE conducts community-engaged, interdisciplinary research to understand and promote the health of people who identify as members of a sexual or gender minority community. Our research studies the health of people who identify as gay, bisexual, lesbian, queer, pansexual, asexual, and other sexual minority people; and the health of trans, genderqueer, non-binary, and other gender minority people, including Indigenous peoples, Black people and people of colour.
Established at Toronto Metropolitan University in 1994, the Centre for Studies in Food Security (CSFS) works to promote food security through research, dissemination, education, community action, and professional practice.
We take an interdisciplinary and systemic approach to social justice, environmental sustainability, health, and socio-cultural aspects of food security. The Centre shares information and facilitates dialogue among civil society organizations, universities, and governments through seminars and workshops, our web site, and associated mailing lists.