Building the bridge between research and healthy communities

Dr. Todd Duhamel, a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management (FKRM) and the associate dean (Health Sciences) in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, says FKRM’s focus on research excellence in the 2024-2027 strategic plan is directly related to building healthy communities. 

Dr. Todd Duhamel, a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management (FKRM) and the associate dean (Health Sciences) in the Faculty of Graduate Studies

“If you take a look at our professors doing research… They’re invited to speak all across Canada and the world,” says Duhamel. “It shows that our researchers really are impacting the local and broader community as well.”

Duhamel says giving professors the opportunity to engage in research helps them change the curriculum over time, create new partnerships and train students in new ways to do research and teach them that diversity of ideas is essential.

To Duhamel, research excellence comes from the processes of research, the questions asked and their outcomes. 

“When you see something, and you have a basic question, that’s curiosity,” says Duhamel. “You can ask the most simple, natural question, and sometimes it’s like, that’s a really interesting thing. We should do some research on that.”

He says that markers of research excellence are seeing your work cited, changing policy, or impacting different programming.

Dr. Shaelyn Strachan, a Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management professor, says exposing students to research is an important part of learning how to think critically.

Dr. Shaelyn Strachan, a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, says exposing students to research is an important part of learning how to think critically.

“It makes you think differently and realize that you can approach problems from different angles and different methodologies and with different viewpoints,” says Strachan.

Strachan says getting involved in research during her undergrad was the key to developing a true appreciation for research.

“Even if students don’t go on to do anything formally with research, taking the knowledge of how to critically consume and understand research into whatever they do is really important,” says Strachan.

She says it’s important for the university to contribute to knowledge and to support the work of good researchers.

“Research is the best process we have for getting to the truth or getting the answers for important questions in society,” says Strachan.

She says that getting creative about getting information to the community is part of how the faculty builds healthy communities.

“Anything that our university and our faculty can do to bridge the gap between research and getting information out there, disseminating it to the communities, is really important,” says Strachan.

Some of the ways the faculty does this are by inviting community members to research days, going out and having conversations with them, and letting them ask questions.

To Strachan, having a research institution within the city creates potential for current, cutting-edge research to benefit and build community.

Emma Ko