The University of Toronto Mississauga’s research faculty received $1.4 million in grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC).
The research include subjects from various fields including drama and theatre, geography, psychology, biology, management, economics, anthropology, along with several others.
The faculty members present their research to the SSHRC and the amount of grants they need for funding. Then, the SSHRC gives funding to the university, who distributes the grants to the respective researchers. The researchers must use the grants provided to them in a time period of five years if they wish to apply for more funds.
“I am so happy about this. These funds will help all the departments answer questions they have been looking for. This will help them progress, encourage new ideas and explore new things. This also means that researchers will be able to bring more people onto their team—undergraduate and graduate. The student’s stipends are paid from these funds,” stated UTM’s vice president of research Bryan Stewart.
Stewart highlighted the research of professor Jessamyn Schertz, who works in the Department of Language Studies, and is studying how people comprehend speeches and adapt to new accents and speech patterns.
“What is interesting is how she is studying something so common, yet what we often do not realize. As a professor in language, she is studying the human communication aspect, and as a biologist I would probably research on the neuron functioning here—that makes this so cool.”
Other UTM recipients of the funding include Shelley Wall from the Department of Biology; Natalie Bau from the Department of Economics; Jasmine Rault from the CCIT department; Carrie Fulton from the Department of Historical Studies; Feng Chen from the Department of Management; Laura Derksen from the Department of Management, Emily Impett from the Department of Psychology; and Jennifer Stellar from the Department of Psychology.
