Prince George, BC – Three University of Northern British Columbia faculty members have secured grants totaling more than $390,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Dr. Gail Fondahl (Geography) and Dr. Ben Bryce (History) received four-year grants through the SSHRC Insight Grant program. Dr. Linda O’Neill (Education) received a two-year SSHRC Insight Development Grant.

“Funding provided by SSHRC enables UNBC faculty to continue to conduct outstanding research on a local, national and global scale,” says Dr. Geoff Payne, UNBC Interim Vice President, Research. “These three projects demonstrate the breadth of social science and humanities research at UNBC and will generate new knowledge that positively impacts society going forward.”

Dr. Fondahl’s grant worth $273,880 will allow her to update and expand her earlier research on the legal reforms guiding indigenous territorial rights in the Russian Federation. The work of Dr. Fondahl and the international team of researchers on the project will add to the academic literature on an area not often covered outside of Russia.

Dr. Bryce received a grant worth $61,666 to examine the role immigrant-run hospitals and mutual aid societies had in providing health-care services along ethnic lines in Buenos Aires in the early 20th century.

Dr. O’Neill will use her $54,820 grant to work with UNBC Education Associate Professor Dr. Tina Fraser to study new Indigenous approaches for evaluating Aboriginal community programs.  

This research is also supported by the Research Support Fund, a tri-agency initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The fund assists Canadian post-secondary institutions and their affiliated research hospitals and institutes with the expenses associated with managing research funded by these three federal research granting agencies.

The University of Northern British Columbia recognizes the value of this support and appreciates this ongoing research investment.

The SSHRC announcement can be found at http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/news_room-salle_de_presse/press_releases-communiques/2016/partnerships_insight-partenariats_savoir-eng.aspx

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