Faculty and staff in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (FAHSS) gathered Dec. 7 in Alumni Auditorium to celebrate colleagues’ accomplishments in research, teaching, and creative activity during the past year, and to recognize in person those award recipients from 2020 and 2021 when events were held virtually.

This was the first in-person gathering since 2019 for the FAHSS Teaching and Staff Awards and Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity Excellence Recognition Event.

This year’s faculty and staff awards were presented to:

• Natalie Delia Deckard, Faculty Meritorious Service Award
• Lauren Waymouth, Staff Meritorious Service Award
• Nick Hector, Dr. Kathleen E. McCrone Teaching Award

Charlene Senn was recognized for becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2022, and Adrian Guta (2021) and Jennifer Willet (2020) were honoured for becoming members of the Royal Society of Canada.

Carol Davison, Randy Lippert, and Nicole Markotic were recognized as the Outstanding Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity Established Faculty Award Winners in 2021.

Eight faculty members were recognized for being awarded Tri-Council Grants in 2022, including:

Jijian Voronka, social work, SSHRC Insight Grant “Street Health and Social Services in the Age of COVID-19: Mapping the impact of the pandemic on street-involved services and supports in Windsor, Ontario.” This project seeks to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on homeless and harm reduction services and supports for street-involved individuals, those that serve them, and the surrounding community of Windsor, Ontario.

Katherine Rudzinski, a post-doctoral fellow in social work, SSHRC Insight Development Grant “Gendering safe supply programs: Understanding women's experiences of victimization, criminalization, and resistance.” This study advances knowledge about the relationship between women, drugs, and society, and proposes novel solutions to the complex social problem of the overdose crisis that move beyond the “war on drugs.”

Felipe Duarte, social work, SSHRC Insight Development Grant “Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals in Windsor, Ontario.” This project seeks to understand the process of adapting the global UN Sustainable Development Goals to the city level, which represents the engagement process of planning and implementing the goals in all three dimensions of sustainability social, environmental, and economic — to the local level.

Kendall Soucie, psychology, SSHRC Insight Development Grant “Breaking the silence: Building an inclusive, resiliency-based framework to support women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome across the lifespan.” The goal of this project is to center the lived experiences of women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome from a lifespan developmental biopsychosocial framework.

Ashley Glassburn-Falzetti, women’s and gender studies in social work, SSHRC Insight Development Grant “Felt Indigenous Histories: Miami perspectives on the violence of settler historical narratives.” The goal of this project is to integrate Indigenous heritage values and felt experiences of historical narratives into the process of history making, beginning with narratives of the Miami Nation of Indiana, of which Dr. Glassburn-Falzetti is a member.

Charlene Senn, psychology, CIHR Project Grant “A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Efficacy of IDEA3 — an Evidence-Based Sexual Assault Resistance Intervention for Undergraduate Women Adapted for Internet Delivery.” The Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) sexual assault prevention program developed by Dr. Senn is an intervention proven to significantly reduce sexual assaults in campus communities. The project asks if a synchronous online adaptation of this program would increase women’s ability to detect risk; use the most effective self-defence strategies; increase women’s confidence that they could defend themselves if confronted with a sexual assault situation; reduce rape myth beliefs that hamper risk detection; and reduce women’s self-blame if a rape occurs.

Adrian Guta, social work, CIHR Catalyst Grant “It takes a village: Developing community-based research capacity for safer opioid supply clients in Kitchener-Waterloo.” The goal of this community-based Research Catalyst Grant is to develop a program of community-based research attuned to the needs and realities of people living with and affected by HIV and/or Hepatitis C Virus and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Dana Menard, psychology, CIHR Open Operating Grant “Laying the groundwork for improved psychological preparedness and adaptation of Canadian nurses working during healthcare crises: Simulated training to improve resiliency of nursing groups (STRONG).” The goal of this project is to create and pilot a training program that will prepare nursing students to work during this pandemic and other extreme healthcare crises. The program will consist of 10 training modules combining online content and in-person practice; topics may include trauma, burnout, moral distress, self-care, and resiliency, working with racialized patients during COVID, and stigma.