The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) recently announced research funding through the Insight Development Grant program, including awards to faculty members at Huron University College.
Dr. Tara Dumas, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, received funding for her research investigating adolescents’ tendencies to seek social validation on social networking sites. Her project, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Wendy Ellis (King’s University College) asks “what happens when adolescents ‘lie for likes’?” Dr. Dumas explains that “our pilot data suggests that 70% of teens engage in deceptive like-seeking, such as buying likes or followers and digitally modifying physical features, which is alarming.” She aims to investigate what causes teens to seek likes deceptively and to what extent this behaviour affects teens’ developing identities, self-esteem, and well-being.
The V.P. Cronyn Archives held at Huron University College are the starting point for research by Dr. Bill Acres (Associate Professor, Church History and Comparative Religion) exploring the nineteenth century legal history of the former Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario. Understanding the complex legal entanglements of the longest running residential school in Canada involves working through over 13,000 items in the Huron archives, in addition to the records of the New England Company held at archives in London, UK. “The materials offer rich local historical aspects of how Indigenous children were to made Christian, ‘civilized’ by the ‘pious objects’ which originated in the New England Company’s trusts from 1827 and 1836,” explains Dr. Acres, “in effect, the many sources which can be brought together present a unique view of the residential school system, and contemporary legal and political discourses of power.”
Both projects open opportunities for students at Huron to engage in the research process alongside faculty members through Research Assistant positions on campus. Dr. Dumas’ project will further contribute to Healthy Behaviours in an Online World, an ongoing project in partnership with the Thames Valley District School Board which brings secondary and post-secondary students and educators together on campus each spring to share and discuss research related to everyday social media use.
SSHRC Insight Development Grants provide funding for research in its initial stages as a part of the Insight program, which aims to “build knowledge and understanding about people, societies and the world by supporting research excellence.”