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In the age of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” scholars, politicians, policy-makers, educators, students and citizens need access to authoritative information and its historical contexts. But the “connective tissue” that Web users need in order to synthesize the immense amounts of authoritative data is missing. This connective tissue is linked data—a method of publishing structured data so it can be interlinked and become more useful.

The economic, health, social and even defense benefits of access to peer-reviewed, authoritative data are well established. But there is a shortage of humanities data available online in linked-data format. Currently, linked data only make up one percent of the Web. That means whether they know it or not, users do not have access to the full knowledge-generating power that the Web is designed to support.

Dr. Constance Crompton, Canada Research Chair in Digital Humanities, aims to change this situation by giving Web users access to the ”superpowers of the humanities”: a better ability to understand the past in order to improve the future.

Crompton, her research team and colleagues are converting vast amounts of peer-reviewed, authoritative, open-access digital humanities content into linked data—and creating models of the past to inform expectations about the future. The authoritative information they generate will be served alongside its historical context to help both human readers and computers infer appropriate solutions from the data. Ultimately, this research will break down data silos to help turn Web users into humanities superheroes.

Canada Research Chair in Environment, Society and Policy

The world is experiencing unprecedented socio-environmental problems. Climate and social change, political reform and large-scale development have led to rapidly changing global conditions. This has made it critically important to identify, define and effectively govern the complex interdependencies that exist between humans and the natural environment. 

Dr. Jackie Dawson, Canada Research Chair in Environment, Society and Policy, is examining resilience in communities where environmental change has resulted in the restructuring and transformation of local economies. Dr. Dawson is focusing on communities that are seeing their economies ruined by changing environmental conditions and on communities that are witnessing new economic opportunities due to the changing environment. 

Communities in Canada and around the world that rely on vulnerable environmental resources have long been prone to boom or bust economic cycles. These cycles are even more prevalent in today’s era of rapid economic development and globalization. That has made it more important than ever for communities to weigh the pros and cons of development and pay close attention to resilience, adaptation and related economic policy.

Dr. Dawson’s research will increase knowledge and reduce the environmental and public safety risks associated with changing environmental and socio-economic conditions in communities.

Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Intellectual Traditions and Self-Determination - Takuaimatishun 

The research of Dr. Ross-Tremblay and his team focuses on First Peoples' perspectives on the multi-dimensional effects of genocide and colonialism today and on the continuity and expansion of oral and intellectual traditions as an alternative to lived colonial realities and as a source of social transformation. The Research Chair consists of four units:

1. Documentation & Archives;
2. Research & Analysis;
3. Teaching & knowledge sharing; and
4. Service to the community.

The Chair’s actions aim to strengthen narrative and normative sovereignties as well as to support effective practices of self-determination. The Chair pursues both the empowerment of First Peoples in research, excellence in research on the effective operationalization of the First Peoples' right to self-determination and the protection of Ancestral lands.

Dr. Ross-Tremblay and his team have as specific objectives to

• Protect threatened and marginalized oral archives, share with families the rich existing but unavailable stories of their Elders, and generate innovative self-archiving tools to support family and community narrative sovereignty;
• Accompany individuals, families, and communities in recording their memories, producing and socializing their stories, especially with youth, through the use of social memory technology;
• Conduct advanced studies on contemporary manifestations of psychological colonialism and abuses of power through the amplification of marginalized memories and voices, including the study of phenomena related to cultural forgetting (amnesiology) and ignorance (agnology) as barriers to intergenerational knowledge and land protection;
• To support processes of analysis and applied research related to the expansion of legal orders, ancestral sovereignties and conceptions of autonomy;
• To provide cutting-edge pro bono expertise in training, memory project management, strengthening and affirmation of ancestral legal orders, conflict prevention and management, diplomacy and complex problem solving.

The work of the Chair will prioritize research and training projects defined and implemented by, for and with First Peoples.

University Research Chair in Metis Family and Community Traditions 

This University Research Chair in Metis Family and Community Traditions builds directly on work undertaken during Brenda Macdougall’s 10-year term as Chair in Metis Research. This research program investigates how Metis kinscapes—relational constellations spread throughout an expansive geographic area—acted as epicenters of Plains Metis cultural florescence and sense of nationhood. By analyzing how Plains Metis buffalo hunters, called Otipaimsiwauk (people who were their own bosses) in Cree, articulated their sense of self through an array of social and political actions, this work will provide new insights into the evolution and qualities of their nationhood. 

Macdougall is, furthermore, engaging in new projects based on art practices rooted in traditions of material culture. This new research creation project is an extension of the kinscape research by marrying traditional values with contemporary engagement with our relatives across generations and gender-diverse peoples. This project explores how our people used clothing and adornment to introduce our spirit to our family, community, nation (human and non-human), and ultimately, to our ancestors, grandmothers and grandfathers, spirit helpers, the first Grandmother, and Creator. It seeks to answer one central question—how can we incorporate our authentic, spiritual selves into our work as a means to engage in decolonized Indigenization by contemplating how traditional teachings, ceremonial lodges, and societies function today and can model Indigenization and decolonization within the academy. Significantly, both projects are reflective of Plains Indigenous understandings of our own history and seek to provide a means for us to communicate in ways that reflect our values, knowledge, and beliefs. This research program contributes to �¼���ʱʱ��’s goal of advancing just societies, and by marrying Indigenous research methodologies with digital humanities technologies and research creation, it creates a new theoretical lens for investigating our traditional knowledge.

Franco-Ontarian communities and immigration: vitality, transformation and diversification

In light of political and community priorities accorded to Francophone immigration as a means of ensuring the vitality of Franco-Ontarian communities, it is essential to understand how established members of these communities perceive and experience the arrival of new and diverse populations. My research program will contribute to the advancement of empirical and conceptual knowledge on Franco-Ontarian communities by documenting socio-spatial dynamics and interactions between cultural groups in the unique context of these Francophone communities. The results will be used to develop recommendations for public policy and community practices that meet the needs of local Francophone communities.

OLBI Research Chair in Language Learning and Acquisition

The OLBI Research Chair in Language Learning and Acquisition is held by Dr. Christopher Fennell (2017-2022), associate professor in the School of Psychology and the Department of Linguistics. Dr. Fennell is a specialist in early word learning, infant bilingualism, and infant speech perception. Since his arrival at �¼���ʱʱ�� in 2006, he has received significant research funding from SSHRC and NSERC, and is a founding member of the �¼���ʱʱ�� Living Lab at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, in addition to serving as director of the Language Development Laboratory.