2025 SSHRC Insight Grant recipients
Eric Allina: On the Frontline: A History of Socialism in Mozambique
This project examines how ordinary Mozambicans understood and acted on the radical socialist vision advanced by Frelimo, the group that led Mozambique’s anti-colonial war following the country’s independence in 1975. Combining archival research, news analysis and interviews, the project will trace ideas from their origins at national or international scale to their reception and transformation into practices of governance in everyday life. Focusing on local officials, the research will document how Mozambicans put Frelimo’s socialist vision into practice, develop new ways of understanding how people embrace radical political ideas and explore the lasting connections between African countries and the former socialist bloc, providing new insights into the realities of socialist state-building, political participation and social change.
Jan Grabowski: Liquidations of Ghettos in Eastern Poland
Drawing on archival sources from Poland, Germany, Israel and the United States, this project will examine the violent liquidation of three Jewish ghettos during the Holocaust in northeastern Poland. The research will explore the motivations and strategies of the perpetrators through the lens of wartime evidence, postwar court investigations and preserved Jewish testimonies. The project will shed light on the agency of the targeted Jewish population as well as the agency of the non-German “bystanders.” By examining the decisions and actions of Jewish residents, German perpetrators and local non-Jewish populations, the research challenges longstanding misconceptions about Jewish passivity during the Holocaust, offering important insights into human agency, moral choice and survival under conditions of extreme violence and terror.
Geoffery Greatrex: Late Antiquity and the World Today
This project re-examines the period known as Late Antiquity (ca. 250–750 CE), a transformative era marked by the decline of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Christianity and Islam. By analyzing both ancient sources and modern scholarship from across Europe and North America, the research challenges longstanding assumptions about the period as either an age of decline or one of seamless cultural renewal. Instead, it seeks a more balanced understanding of a complex and dynamic historical moment. The project will advance international scholarly debates and demonstrate how interpretations of the Roman past continue to shape contemporary discussions about migration, identity, governance and social change while simultaneously highlighting the continuing relevance of the study of classics and the humanities.
Marie Oelgemoeller: Sounding Resistance: How Indigenous and Black Communities in Canada and Australia Use Podcasting to Resist Colonial Systems and Assert Cultural Sovereignty
This project investigates how Indigenous and Black communities in Canada and Australia use podcasting to reclaim narrative power, challenge colonial and racist structures, and strengthen cultural sovereignty. Through a comparative study of two settler-colonial contexts, the research will explore how podcasters use audio storytelling and media activism to address shared histories of marginalization while responding to distinct social, political and media environments. Combining content analysis, interviews and participatory workshops, the project will generate new insights on the role of podcasting in shaping racial and colonial discourse, the impact of podcasting on journalism and communication education, and will inform future integrations of decolonial and anti-racist approaches in policy, pedagogy and practice.
Adele Reinhartz: The Anchor Yale Bible Commentary on the Gospel of John
This project will produce a new Anchor Yale Bible commentary on the Gospel of John, replacing Raymond E. Brown’s landmark two-volume work, which has guided readers and scholars for more than half a century. While aspects of Brown’s commentary remain influential, others are outdated, as developments in biblical scholarship have introduced new methods and issues such as gender diversity, anti-Judaism and disability discourse. The research will also examine John’s place in the formation of early Christianity, explore how later rabbinic sources can inform interpretation and reflect on the role of commentary itself. The resulting volume will serve as an authoritative resource for scholars, students and general readers worldwide.
Jérémie Séror: AI Literacy for FSL Teachers in Canada: Co-Designing a Competency-Based Framework and Professional Learning Modules
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into education, this project will help ensure its responsible and effective use in Canadian French as a second language (FSL) classrooms. Working closely with FSL teachers, the research will develop, pilot and refine a teacher-validated AI literacy framework and professional learning resources tailored to the realities of high school FSL in Canada. The project will identify the skills, knowledge and ethical considerations required to integrate AI in ways that support language learning while addressing concerns such as bias, privacy and student over-reliance on technology. The resulting resources will strengthen teaching practices, support Canada’s bilingualism goals and build capacity for ethical AI use in education.
Luisa Veronis : Entre aspirations et ancrages : trajectoires multiples des jeunes adultes et vitalité pérenne de la francophonie minoritaire ontarienne
Ce projet examine comment les jeunes adultes francophones de l’Ontario naviguent les grandes transitions vers la vie adulte dans un contexte marqué par la crise du logement, la hausse du coût de la vie, les transformations du marché du travail et les effets durables de la pandémie. Ces contraintes structurelles placent autant les jeunes nés au Canada que ceux issus de l'immigration dans une position critique pour l'avenir des communautés francophones en situation minoritaire. En mobilisant les perspectives de la géographie sociale, de la psychologie transculturelle et de l’éducation, la recherche analysera comment les aspirations personnelles, les contraintes socioéconomiques et les soutiens communautaires influencent leurs choix de mobilité, d’établissement et d’engagement en français. En documentant la diversité des parcours par le biais d’une approche qualitative et participative, le projet contribuera à l’élaboration de politiques et de pratiques favorisant la vitalité et la résilience des communautés francophones en situation minoritaire.
Jada Watson: Charting the Colour Line
This project investigates how music chart classifications have historically reinforced racial boundaries, thus shaping opportunity, visibility and recognition in the popular music industry. Drawing on data feminist and data production research methods, the study will focus on Billboard's flagship charts (R&B, Country, Hot 100) and examine the socio-technical, legislative, industrial, technological and cultural conditions that have shaped the chart system’s development and evolution over the last century. The project’s digital advocacy strategy for intellectual reparations will address the legacy of whiteness that endures within the music industry, and aim to recover, redefine and reinvest in the stories of Black musicians and their music.
2026 SSHRC Insight Development Grant recipients
Claudia Bouliane : Une sororité beauvoirienne? La représentation de l’amitié féminine dans l’oeuvre de Simone de Beauvoir
Ce projet propose de renouveler la lecture de l’œuvre de Simone de Beauvoir en s’intéressant à un thème encore peu étudié : l’amitié entre femmes. En analysant ses romans, ses essais, ses écrits autobiographiques, ainsi que sa correspondance, la recherche explore la manière dont ces relations ont façonné sa pensée et son écriture. Alors que les études sur Beauvoir ont souvent mis l’accent sur les rapports entre les femmes et les hommes, ce projet montre que les liens d’amitié, de solidarité et d’échange entre femmes occupent une place centrale dans son œuvre. Comblant une lacune importante dans les études littéraires françaises, cette étude vise ainsi à comprendre quelles visions du monde ces amitiés féminines expriment et comment leur représentation évolue tout au long de la trajectoire intellectuelle de Beauvoir, notamment dans le contexte des transformations liées à l’émergence du féminisme de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle.
Kyle Conway: Contested Meaning in Justin Trudeau's Official Speeches, 2015–2025: A Hermeneutic Text Mining Approach
This project examines how language shaped public debate and national identity during Justin Trudeau’s decade as prime minister. Analyzing more than 300 official speeches delivered between 2015 and 2025, it explores how key terms such as reconciliation, feminism and protest evolved in response to major events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools and the Freedom Convoy. The research will also advance new approaches to text mining, investigating how computational tools can help scholars trace changes in meaning across large collections of texts. This critical look back at the recent past will make it possible to look forward in an informed way, ultimately helping Canadians navigate an increasingly turbulent world.
Lauren Gillingham: Literature in the Age of Social Media
This project explores how contemporary novels are responding to the rise of social media and digital technology, challenging the view that digital technology undermines literary value. By examining fiction published since the late 2000s, the research aims to show how novelists’ experiments with the forms and pacing of digital media do more than depict what it means to connect socially today: they develop new narrative models to articulate social media’s fundamental reorganization of our notions of selfhood, community and public life, and a widely-shared experience of the acceleration of historical change. It also situates these developments within the longer history of the novel, drawing connections to earlier literary responses to technological innovation in the nineteenth century. The project will offer new insights into how literature helps society understand, critique and navigate periods of profound technological transformation.
Yana Meerzon: Performing Hybrid War and Forced Migration: On the Spatial-Temporal Aesthetics of the Age of Acceleration
This project examines how theatre created by displaced Ukrainian and Russian anti-war artists responds to the realities of contemporary warfare, including the circulation of violent images through digital media and the ensuing collapse of spatial and temporal distance. Focusing on performances developed since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the research explores how theatre can slow down audiences’ engagement with conflict, creating space for reflection, empathy and critical attention. Through fieldwork at international theatre festivals and analysis of performances and artistic materials, the project will investigate how live performance challenges the immediacy of mediated violence and preserves experiences that might otherwise be overlooked. The findings will advance understanding of the relationship between art, technology, war and public memory.
Jada Watson: Simulated Voices, Real Consequences: Generative AI, Ethics and Inequality in the Popular Music Industry
This project examines the ethical, cultural and economic implications of AI-generated and AI-assisted artists at a crucial time when AI is becoming increasingly integrated into music creation without clear regulatory frameworks and industry policy. Through case studies of emerging AI-driven music projects, combined with semi-structured interviews and close analysis of AI-generated recordings and media, industry and artists’ discourse, the research explores questions of consent, authorship, creative control, compensation and accountability. Grounded in a feminist ethics of care, it situates GenAI within a longer historical lineage of extraction, exclusion and unequal power relations in the popular music industry, asking critical questions about who benefits from GenAI systems and who bears the downstream cultural, social and economic consequences. Significantly, the research will inform how norms are formed before they become entrenched, supporting more accountable and equitable approaches to GenAI in music.
2025 NSERC Discovery Grant recipient
Charles Brunette: The Changing Arctic Sea Ice Cover: Investigating the Transition to a Seasonal Pack Ice Using High-resolution RADARSAT Constellation Mission Data
A major impact of climate change in polar regions is the reduction of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Beyond a decrease in area and extent, sea ice age is a key parameter for understanding the transition from a perennial to a seasonal pack ice, shifting from thicker, older ice to thinner, younger ice. Using high-resolution satellite data, the research will develop new ways to measure the age and movement of sea ice, helping scientists better understand the transition to seasonal pack ice in the Arctic. The project will also examine how satellite technologies shape knowledge about the Arctic and raise questions of data sovereignty. At a time when environmental conditions, geopolitical stability and the sustainability of infrastructures in the Arctic are being challenged, this research program makes impactful contributions to developing diverse and accessible data products and to creating strong, resilient and independent Earth observation systems in the Canadian North and the Arctic.