Alexandra Gillespie

Funding for UofT Mississauga Faculty Members

By Carla DeMarco

Professor Alexandra Gillespie (pictured, right) from the Department of English and Drama is one of thirteen faculty members from U of T Mississauga to have been recently awarded through the Research and Scholarly Activity Fund competition for her project, “Collating Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.”

“There was a broad range of projects from both established and emerging scholars, and the funding will help to support research in its initial stages or in investigating new lines of inquiry" says Bryan Stewart, UTM's Vice-Principal, Research.

The Office of the Vice-Principal, Research, received 26 applications for the Research and Scholarly Activity Fund, and a handful of applications for the Outreach, Conference and Colloquia Fund. "Our Research Council was impressed with the span of research initiatives put forward by their colleagues at UTM," says Stewart.

A diverse range of projects from various UTM departments are receiving funds of up to $10,000, supporting such topics as climate change in Yukon and Alaska (Professor Trevor Porter, Geography), to social stress on the initiation of chronic pain (Professor Loren Martin, Psychology), or examining a large collection of translated fables from the late sixteenth century (Professor Liza Blake, English & Drama), and exploring women’s shifting roles in South Korea in terms of real estate and homeownership (Professor Hae Yeon Choo, Sociology). The funds will go towards a whole host of research-associated costs including travel, hiring research personnel, paying for lab equipment or helping to support dissemination activities.

Both the Research and Scholarly Activity Fund and the Outreach, Conference and Colloquia Fund aim to promote research at U of T Mississauga by assisting researchers with expenses related to scholarly activity and costs associated in communicating findings and networking with colleagues working in the same field. The intention is also to make UTM researchers more competitive in their other grant applications since internal financial sources are increasingly important for securing external funds.

The internal funding competition will likely have the next call for submissions in early October. For the full results of the 2015 October or past competitions, please see the Research and Scholarly Activity Fund and the Outreach, Conference and Colloquia Fund pages.