Trent University Professors Awarded Nearly $300,000 in Research Grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Funding to Support Outstanding Research in Better Teaching Methods, Tropical Commodity Agreements, Palestinian Olive Oil, Links Between Neanderthals and Modern Humans, and the Political Analysis of Culture

Thursday, August 28, 2008, Peterborough

Marilyn Taylor, vice-president of grants and fellowships for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), announced today that Trent University professors will receive $299,019 in new research funding.

“We are very pleased with today’s announcement which will support a diverse range of outstanding research projects,” said Dr. James D. Parker, vice president of research, international and strategic enrolment management at Trent University. “Studies in the humanities are a core component of Trent’s research focus, and it is exciting to see both established and new faculty at Trent receive these highly competitive national awards for their work.”

“Our government is committed to fostering world-class Canadian research and increasing the supply of highly qualified and globally connected graduates that businesses need to succeed in today’s economy,” said the Honourable James Moore, Secretary of State, who participated in today’s announcement. “We can have all the robust technologies in the world, but we need the social sciences and humanities to know how to harness them and interpret them from a human perspective, so that they translate into tangible, everyday benefits for society.”
The grants announced today will support the following faculty members at Trent:

Catherine D. Bruce
School of Education and Professional Learning
The development of pre-service and in-service teacher efficacy: a model of professional support for sustained mathematics reform implementation
$45,730

Gavin Fridell
Political Studies
Managing marketing: a comparative assessment of commodity agreements for coffee and bananas
$48,377

Anne Meneley
Anthropology
The context of the production, consumption and circulation of Palestinian olive oil
$60,912

Eugene Morin
Anthropology
Re-examining the subsistence strategies and ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans $89,000
James Penney Cultural Studies Examining the psychoanalytic theory of transference in its relation to the political analysis of culture
$55,000

TOTAL FUNDING $299,019

Since 1999, research funding at Trent has grown 400% to just over $15 million annually in 2007 in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. This investment has enabled Trent to develop state-of-the-art facilities and support structures that nurture research excellence and in the field.

SSHRC is the federal agency that promotes and supports university-based research and training in the humanities and social sciences. Through its programs and policies, the Council enables the highest levels of research excellence in Canada, and facilitates knowledge sharing and collaboration across research disciplines, universities and all sectors of society.

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For further information, please contact Dr. James D. Parker, vice president, research, international and strategic enrolment management at (705) 748-1011, ext. 7935.