UM researchers receive new project funding with nine Insight Development Grants

Nine UM researchers have received $ 544,811 in federal funding for new projects seeking to build knowledge and understanding about people and societies. Insight Development Grants are awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to enable the development of new theoretical approaches and experimentation.

“Congratulations to these researchers who are probing new directions in social sciences and humanities research,” said Mario Pinto, vice-president (research & international). “The success of these projects speaks highly of the quality of emerging fundamental research at UM.”

UM 2024 Insight Development Grant recipients include:

Namita Bhatnagar, Professor & F. Ross Johnson Fellow, Marketing Department

Sensitive women and rational men: Bridging the gender divide in consumer and employee green behaviours

This project seeks to facilitate greater participation of both men and women in pro-environmentalism by identifying de-stigmatizing strategies in the current discourse. Men may worry about a “green-feminine” or “caring women” stereotype, while women may be hindered by heightened anxiety in male-dominated domains associated with a “tech-savvy men” stereotype. Bhatnagar proposes a multi-phase consumer and organizational exploration of the interplay between varied gender stereotypes and environmental sustainability in contexts that are traditionally homemaking adjacent and those that are affiliated with the contemporary green tech movement.

David Drewes, Associate Professor, Department of Religion

Early Scholarship on Buddhism

Focused on the beginnings of scholarship on Buddhism in the first half of the nineteenth century, Drewes seeks to examine two lesser known but significant sources of ideas and influence. This includes early publications of the Wesleyan Methodist Mission to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and the work of Horace Hayman Wilson, the first Boden professor of Sanskrit at Oxford.

Amy Farrell, Assistant Professor, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning

Ikwe and Amik: Indigenous storying and feminine being within and beyond the Fur Trade, an educational inquiry

Farrell seeks to address the urgent need for Indigenous women’s voices in the history of the fur trade, which have been largely excluded from literature and records. This research employs an innovative Indigenous storying methodology to intricately blend culturally significant Indigenous knowledge and worldview. Using creative fiction to portray collective experiences, the enduring value of women’s roles can be emphasized.

Jennifer Watt, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education

We Interrupt this Programming: Confronting Gender Based Sexual Violence through Critical Media Literacies in K-12 Schools

With this project, Watt and co-investigator Shannon Moore aims to confront barriers to teaching about consent, gender-based sexual violence and support survivors in K-12 schools using popular media as a catalyst for change. This research is urgently needed by educators and school systems to understand how critical media literacies can be harnessed to confront and disrupt the many ways that gender-based sexual violence exists in society. Learn more on the We Interrupt this Programming webpage.

Bruno De Oliveira Jayme, Assistant Professor, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning

Social Movement Learning – An Exploration of Quality Education Through Participatory Video

De Olivera Jayme seeks to address the gaps between formal and informal education with actionable steps for more equitable and participatory learning practices. What and how Canadian school system can learn from educational grassroots movements from South America? Working with the vibrant Slum Defense Movement from São Paulo, Brazil, this study uses arts-based participatory action research to identify insights that can inform formal education in North America.

Muhammad Kabir, Assistant Professor, Accounting & Finance Department

Auditor Liability, Firm-level Audit Quality, and Investment: The Effect of the Livent Case on Canadian Firms

This project will test how changes in auditors’ litigation risk affect audit quality and investments in Canada, providing empirical evidence supporting the work of regulators. Kabir will mobilize this evidence to inform how increased liability may positively or adversely affect audit quality and demonstrate how firms respond to their investment decisions as their auditors’ liability changes. Read Muhammad Kabir’s most recent publication on ScienceDirect.

Jody Stark, Associate Professor, Desautels Faculty of Music

Developing and Piloting a Local Music Pedagogy

This collaborative research project engages local music educators along with representatives of various community arts organizations to create a decolonizing framework for music education in Treaty 1 territory. The results of this innovative project will allow the Stark research team to pilot a locally-informed music pedagogy and provide guidance to educators, policy makers and community arts organizations for community-school collaborations as a way to decolonize and Indigenize music education. Read Jody Stark’s publications on Academia.

Jie Yang, Assistant Professor, Business Administration Department

My Turf, My Rules: Investigating the Roles of Customers in Product Categorization

This project will offer a more holistic understanding of product categorization by investigating the roles of individual customers in the categorization process. Product categorization involves assigning one or more category labels to a product. Existing literature has predominantly focused on how producers, for the purposes of capturing monetary value, dominate the categorization of their products. Yang seeks to address the imbalance in category literature by reframing the relationship between product categories and economic outcomes within a customer-centered framework. Read Jie Yang’s most recent publication on SageJournals.

Xiumei Li, Assistant Professor, Business Administration Department

Entrepreneurial Success in Crowdfunding: The Art and Science of Sensemaking

Li employs a mixed method approach to investigate how entrepreneurs develop effective referencing strategies to actively engage audiences and secure necessary resources with crowdfunded ventures. This study will examine popular crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, with a focus on entrepreneurs’ sensemaking around the relative nature of novelty and other key reference points.

UM Today Staff