The Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation conferred this year’s Knowledge Mobilization Award to Jude Mary Cénat (Faculty of Social Sciences), Lena Hübner (Faculty of Arts) and Amy Salyzyn (Faculty of Law, Common Law Section), whose research projects have left indelible marks on the lives of individuals.
Lena Hübner: Breaking the silence surrounding cyberviolence
Category: Early Career Researcher
Assistant Professor Lena Hübner from the Department of Communication is studying the violence experienced in digital spaces by racialized Francophone women in Canada.
This type of violence has a major impact on democracy since it influences how racialized women access information, express themselves and participate in public online spaces. These women resort to a variety of strategies to protect themselves, including avoiding online spaces, self-censuring, blocking accounts that disseminate violent content, and choosing content creators with whom they identify.
As part of her research project, Lena Hübner documented the types of violence that racialized Francophone women from Quebec and Ontario face. She sought to understand how this violence affects how they consume news and what strategies they used to combat such violence.
A dialogue between research, art and community
Lena Hübner took a feminist co-creator approach to her research by placing the individuals concerned at the centre of her research process. She worked with Co-Savoir, a Montreal agency, which hosted focus groups of community organization representatives as well as interviews with racialized women from Ottawa and Montreal.
The results of this research were then used to create an interactive online art exposition entitled: Naviguer les méandres du numérique : voix plur·iel·les contre le racisme, la misogynie et autres violences en ligne, a digital space designed not only to present the research, but also to initiate a larger social discussion of gendered and racialized violence online.
The research team worked with Fanny Constantino, Yasmine Hadid and Dion Prints, the three racialized artists who created the art works for this exposition. Lena Hübner also presented resources to combat cyberviolence in a podcast produced in cooperation with community organizations. The first two episodes explored the tools created by two agencies: Co-Savoir and Les 3 sex.
Raising awareness and equipping communities
Lena Hübner’s research identified three types of violence involved in news consumption: violence facilitated by digital technologies, such as hateful comments, algorithmic bias and disinformation; violence perpetuated by media content itself, notably by the angle journalists take or the underrepresentation of various groups; and violence stemming from linguistic barriers that limit access to information in French.
By harnessing her knowledge mobilization efforts, this researcher helps to expose digital marginalization issues and contributes to discussions on solutions in community, artistic and academic settings.
The project has already had an impact beyond the world of research, with agencies integrating the podcast into their activities as a way to raise awareness.
Jude Mary Cénat: Evolving mental health care toward anti-racist practices
Category: Established or Middle-Career Researcher
Microaggressions and racial discrimination in mental health services are a major issue in Canada. Clinical practices are rarely culturally adapted or aware of racial realities and issues.
From the School of Psychology, Professor Jude Mary Cénat is holder of the University of Ottawa Research Chair on Black Health and director of the Vulnerability, Trauma, Resilience and Culture Research Laboratory (V-TRaC) and of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health (ICBN). He investigates the inadequacies of health care provided to racialized and Indigenous communities.
Following the development of an online training program and interactive platform on anti-racist mental health care, Jude Mary Cénat is now working to bring these tools into health care settings across Canada. The project will support their implementation and evaluate their impact within racialized communities. Funding is provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
The project aims to run this training at four partner institutions in Ottawa, namely The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, Montfort Hospital, the Le Cap centre and uOttawa’s Student Health and Wellness Centre, and to measure its effects on clinical practices and the experiences of the individuals being cared for.
Mobilizing partners to improve health care
By adopting a participative and partnership approach, Jude Mary Cénat and his team have mobilized all the stakeholders throughout the project, namely the student population, clinical staff members, patients and community organizations. He is also mobilizing knowledge about anti-racist mental health care through several academic publications that confirm the effectiveness of the training.
Changing practices one setting at a time
By launching a bilingual, accessible interactive platform, the project has extended its reach well beyond the four partners initially targeted, allowing several thousands of mental health care professionals to benefit from this expertise.
By promoting the adoption of anti-racist practices and reducing barriers to service access, this training has helped improve the quality of health care provided to racialized and Indigenous communities in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia.
Jude Mary Cénat’s work is based on research, collaboration and integration. It provides professionals with the tools needed to adjust their practices and provide top quality care to racialized and Indigenous people. It is also transforming the fight against racism in mental health care into concrete actions and making mental health care more fair, inclusive and anti-racist.
Jude Mary Cénat is addressing major shortfalls in clinical practices and health care policy, and in doing so, he is helping to internationally promote Ottawa as a leader in the development and implementation of anti-racist mental health care.
Amy Salyzyn: Empowering youth to reimagine access to justice
Category: Mid-career or established researchers
Access to justice remains a significant challenge in Canada, with studies showing that 80% of Canadians have experienced unmet legal needs at some point in their lives.
Associate Professor Amy Salyzyn from the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, who is a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, is exploring how technology can help address these barriers by engaging young people in the conversation.
Recognizing that today’s youth are not only future participants in the justice system but also innovators, Salyzyn created the Apps for Justice Challenge (AJC), which invites high school students to imagine and design legal apps that tackle real-world access-to-justice challenges.
Shaping the future of justice
Partnering with the Ontario Justice Education Network (OJEN), Salyzyn also brought together uOttawa law students, high school students and teachers to develop educational resources that help students better understand the justice system while encouraging technology-based solutions.
The resources were later adapted for classroom use and made available to teachers across Ontario. Educators can choose between a two-day introductory format or a five-day version that includes the Apps for Justice Challenge.
Inspiring the next generation of justice innovators
Since its launch in 2019, the Apps for Justice Challenge has engaged more than 250 high school students from across Ontario.
The initiative has also created meaningful experiential learning opportunities for uOttawa law students, challenging them to translate complex legal concepts into accessible resources for non-expert audiences. Through this work, participants gain a deeper understanding of public legal education and the role innovation can play in improving access to justice.
By encouraging students to think creatively about legal problems and their solutions, the project is helping to cultivate a new generation of informed and engaged justice innovators.
