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Accolades in Research

Research is one of our top strengths.

LA&PS is the proud home of internationally recognized researchers. Our Faculty’s strength lies in the diversity and range of our researchers’ expertise, specifically in the interdisciplinary social sciences, liberal arts, humanities and professional studies. The Faculty’s commitment to research excellence is reinforced by the continued success of our faculty members in external research funding competitions, and respected national – as well as international – awards and recognitions.

Our faculty are thought leaders undertaking ground-breaking research around the most relevant issues facing humanity today – COVID-19, anti-Black racism, Indigenous research, and Disaster & Emergency Management – with an international focus. Researchers in LA&PS work within and across the University, and with colleagues in more than 80 countries around the world to examine and discover, critique and create.  

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Research in Review
Our Experts in the Media
Distinguished Researchers

Research in Review

Funding & Research Support

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$0.5 mil+

in total external research funding
(2021-22)

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$0.4 mil+

in Tri-council funding
(2021-22)

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$6.3 mil+

in SSHRC funding
(2021-22) 

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$4.2 mil+

Funding for new research partnerships
(2021-22) 

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New hires in 2021-2022

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LA&PS Black Scholars Research Fund awards

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$4.7 mil+

in COVID-19-related projects (since the start of the pandemic)

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Events and Knowledge Mobilization projects supported

Prestigious Awards & Accolades

Investing in New Generation of Scholars

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Postdoctoral Fellowships

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Graduate degrees completed (MA & PhD)

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Graduate Tri-Council scholarships

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Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE)

Our Experts in the Media

What’s behind Peru’s political crisis? Who are the players? And what might happen next?

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"I think these protests are out of this exasperation people have," says Professor Patrick Clarke on the recent unrest in Peru since the ouster of its former president. 

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Ontario law firm offering free legal services to people caught stealing groceries 

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“We don’t want people dying because of a lack of food, but people can feel like they’ve got no other choice..." notes law and ethics professor Richard Leblanc on the recent rise in shoplifting food from grocery stores. 

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Why for-profit homes won’t solve long-term care issues: Privatizing health services is a bad idea that just won’t go away

"The argument that privatization will speed up access to care does not necessarily mean good care," writes Professor Pat Armstrong and her co-author in their latest for Conversation Canada. 

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How a multitude of Harry headlines helped propel Spare to early sales success

The themes that Harry and Meghan have shared in their podcast, Netflix series and best-selling memoir, Spare, parallel issues of interest to today's readers, such as self-help and speaking one's truth, Professor Matthew Bucemi tells CBC. 

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Distinguished Researchers

Our faculty members are especially well-known for their impressive array of scholarly outputs, which have influenced public policy and debate, enriched society and culture, inspired awe – and utterly transformed ways of thinking. Touching on many areas of study within the liberal arts and professional fields, our researchers can draw from their diversity of scholarship, extensive network and research centres to produce work that hits on the most relevant issues of the day.

Here are some of our faculty who have won accolades for their high-calibre research.

Order of Canada

Presented by the Governor General or reigning monarch, the second-highest honour one can be given in Canada awards people who have made extraordinary contributions to the country and enriched the lives of others.

Susan McGrath, School of Social Work
Professor McGrath was formally invested as a member of the Order of Canada in 2015 for her contributions to research and policy on refugee rights and for fostering collaboration among scholars in her field.

A leading advocate for marginalized people, McGrath has ardently defended human dignity for over four decades. Her early training as a social worker prompted what would become a lifelong concern for displaced persons abroad. As a professor at York University, she directed the Centre for Refugee Studies and led its transformation into one of the world’s premier locations for forced migration studies. Notable for forging links between the policy and research communities, she has always sought to use her academic work to bring about tangible improvements in the lives of those in need.

Hédi Bouraoui, Department of French Studies
Professor Bouraoui was formally invested as a member of the Order of Canada during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in 2019, receiving recognition for his tremendous body of work and tireless advocacy for French-language literature. He is the former Chair of French Studies, and has authored 20 books of poetry, 15 novels, and several volumes of literary criticism throughout his career.

2019 AWARD WINNER Hédi Bouraoui

Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada

Selected by their peers as representing the best in their fields, these Canadian scholars, artists and scientists are recognized as leaders who have had a remarkable impact on the arts, humanities and sciences.

YearFacultyDepartment
2021Michele JohnsonHistory
2020Molly Ladd-TaylorHistory
2020William WickenHistory
2019Jonathan EdmondsonHistory
2018Wenona GilesAnthropology
2018Joan JudgeHistory
2017Lesley A. JacobsSocial Science
2017David McNabEquity Studies
2017Marcel MartelHistory
2015Leah VoskoPolitical Science
2014Priscila UppalEnglish
2013Adrian ShubertHistory
2011Pat ArmstrongSociology
2011Isabella BakkerPolitical Science
2011Bernard LightmanHumanities
2010Sheila EmbletonLanguages, Literatures
& Linguistics
2003Stephen GillPolitical Science
1989Paul E. LovejoyHistory

YearFacultyDepartment
2017Richard C. HoffmanHistory
2013Bettina BradburyHistory and Gender,
Sexuality & Women's Studies
2005Lorraine CodePhilosophy
2004John SaulPolitical Science
1999Michael HerrenHumanities
1997Hédi BouraouiFrench Studies
1995Bryan MassumGeography
1994Leo PanitchPolitical Science
1993Irving M. AbellaHistory
1993Joseph AgassiPhilosophy
1992Robert CoxPolitical Science
1989James GibsonGeography
1989Evelyn KallenAnthropology
1989Frances HenryAnthropology
1988Michael KaterHistory
1985John O'NeillSociology
1982Jack GranatsteinHistory
1982John WarkentinGeography
1981Jerome Ch'enHistory
1976John BosherHistory

Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

To recognize the exceptional achievements of emerging scholars, artists and scientists, the Royal Society elects those to its college who have begun demonstrating this excellence within 15 years of having completed their post-doctoral program or its equivalent.

Deanne Williams, Department of English
Professor Williams specializes in medieval and Renaissance literatures. She established her reputation early with her prize-winning The French Fetish from Chaucer to Shakespeare (2004), which considers the impact of the Norman Conquest on the culture of medieval and Renaissance England by examining a variety of literary representations of, and responses to, France and "the French".

Rachel Koopmans, Department of History
Professor Koopmans has made major contributions to the fields of history, literature, manuscript studies, and art history. Author of the influential and award-winning Wonderful to Relate: Miracle Stories and Miracle Collecting in High Medieval England (2011), she has now extended her reach into the specialist area of medieval stained glass, and is engaged in a revolutionary study of the famous "miracle windows" at Canterbury Cathedral devoted to Thomas Becket.

Kristin Andrews, Department of Philosophy
Professor Andrews has been instrumental in developing the field of philosophy of animal minds. Her interdisciplinary work in the philosophy of psychology demonstrates evolutionary continuity between human and other animals in ways that challenge human uniqueness claims based on supposedly human-unique cognitive capacities. This prize-winning research has received international attention among scholars and in the popular press, and has practical policy consequences about how we should treat other species.

Fuyuki Kurasawa, Department of Sociology
Professor Kurasawa has contributed substantially to research on cross-cultural analysis, human rights and humanitarian crises, and the impact of new technologies on public understanding of global problems. The recipient of several national and international distinctions, he is an inaugural York Research Chair in Global Digital Citizenship and a sought-after bilingual media analyst.

Canada Research Chairs

Attracting and retaining some of the world’s most accomplished and promising minds, this program bestows this title and award on deserving Canadian university research professors who pursue knowledge and research excellence.

Rosemary Coombe, Department of Anthropology
Professor Coombe holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Law, Communication and Culture at York University, where she teaches in Anthropology, the York & Ryerson Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture, and the Graduate Programme in Socio-Legal Studies. Coombe's work addresses the cultural, political, and social implications of intellectual and cultural property laws in contexts shaped by neoliberal governmentalities and human rights norms. She is especially interested in international indigenous rights, cultural heritage practice, and postcolonial issues. Prior to being awarded one of the country's first Canada Research Chairs she was Full Professor of Law at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. She holds a J.S.D. from Stanford University with a Minor in Anthropology and publishes widely in anthropology and political and legal theory.

Christina Sharpe, Department of Humanities
Christina Sharpe, Professor in the Department of Humanities, has been awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Black Studies in the Humanities. As such, Sharpe will create a fulsome and vibrant research hub, rich with innovative research creation practices and projects. The program will convene the Black Still Life Research Group as a new model of study bringing together established and emerging Black Studies scholars, graduate students, and visual and performing artists whose work investigates the myriad ways Black life is made and lived. Through collaborative, theoretical and community-based research methods, the program will explore interdisciplinary ways of knowing and acting to generate scholarly and creative outcomes in Black Studies knowledges.

Leah Vosko, Department of Politics
Leah F. Vosko is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Professor and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Gender & Work at York University. Her research includes (1) the development of an Employment Standards Database, offering a platform for comparative research on employment standards; (2) the creation of the Canada Labour Code Data Analysis Infrastructure, transforming a large-scale administrative database that the Government of Canada's Labour Program maintains into a research tool yielding new insights into labour standards compliance across the country; and (3) an investigation identifying avenues for realizing labour market membership among workers labouring transnationally.

Alan Corbiere, Department of History
Alan Corbiere is an Assistant Professor in the History Department, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous History of North America. There has been an increase in history publications adopting an “Indigenous perspective” based upon colonial documents. Yet many Anishinaabe elders state that their story is still not being fully told because their oral traditions and languages are not the main source. Anishinaabe conceptualizations of time, history, literacy and discourse have not been fully analyzed nor incorporated. Corbiere proposes to “re-right” and “re-write” Indigenous history by privileging oral traditions, Anishinaabemowin and material culture (museum collections) while re-interpreting colonial records, weaving these sources together to the purpose of language/cultural/knowledge revitalization.

Christopher Kyriakides, Department of Sociology
Christopher Kyriakides, Department of Sociology, is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Socially Engaged Research in Race and Racialization. Kyriakides' 'Racialized Reception Contexts' research program focuses on configurations of racialization in relation to the meaning of ‘East/West’, ‘South/North’ and articulations of racism and nationalism in the reception of refugees in Europe, North America and the Middle East. His research is guided by the understanding that racialization, particularly in light of the post-9/11 ‘war on terror,’ works with the historical conditions of racism specific to a given national formation, but in a dynamic global context. The initial five-country analysis, including Canada, the United States, Italy, Greece and Jordan, will examine the extent to which policy instruments and media discourses related to the ‘global refugee crisis’ negatively impact racialized communities in each reception context.

Jennifer Pybus, Department of Politics
Jennifer Pybus, Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics, has been awarded a Tier 2 CRC in Data, Democracy and AI. Her globally recognized, interdisciplinary research intersects digital and algorithmic cultures and explores the capture and processing of personal data. Her work focuses on the political economy of social media platforms, display ad economies, and the rise of third parties embedded in the mobile ecosystem which are facilitating algorithmic profiling, monetisation, polarization and bias. Her research contributes to an emerging field, mapping out datafication, a process that is rendering our social, cultural and political lives into productive data for machine learning and algorithmic decision-making. Pybus has cultivated strong European links with public organizations and will use her chair to engage Canadians with innovative tools, resources and pedagogy for increasing critical data literacy and democratic debate about artificial intelligence.

Regina Rini, Department of Philosophy
Regina Rini is a York University Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Moral and Social Cognition. Rini’s research focuses on how people in democratic societies justify their social beliefs to one another. Her work analyzes research from the social sciences, especially cognitive science and sociology, to draw conclusions about how public debate currently works. She also investigates philosophical questions about what it means to improve public debate. How can we take deep moral and political differences seriously while remaining respectful in a diverse society? Rini's central answer is a connection between public discourse and personal moral agency. She argues that we cannot understand our individual moral and political decisions without also understanding how we relate to those of others.

Ethel Tungohan, Department of Politics
Ethel Tungohan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics, and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism. Tungohan will undertake an analysis of discourses that have underpinned the Canadian government’s policies towards temporary foreign workers from 1973 until 2017 and the nature of these policies and their effects on different groups of temporary foreign workers. She will also examine the range of migrant workers’ social movement activities that have emerged as a response, in particular, to anti-migrant discourses and policies.

Trudeau Fellows

Acting as exceptional public educators, professors and intellectual guides, these esteemed individuals empower doctoral scholars in the area of the sciences to become the engaged leaders of the future. 

Haideh Moghissi, Department of Equity Studies
Haideh Moghissi, Professor Emerita of Equity Studies, received the Trudeau Fellowship in 2011 for her work as a leading international scholar of gender, women and Islam. Born and raised in Iran, she was a founder of the Iranian National Union of Women. Her body of research has been consistently informed by her commitment to meaningful, sustainable change and to social justice and gender democracy in the Middle East. She has led several international collaborative research projects on the interacting elements that define the increasing tensions between self-identified Muslim migrants and their new countries.

Isabella Bakker, Department of Politics
Political scientist, York Research Chair and Distinguished Research Professor Isabella Bakker received York University’s first Trudeau Fellowship in 2009 for her work in feminist and critical political economy. Her research addresses the effects macroeconomic policies have on equitable, socially just and sustainable development, as well as on human rights. Her work connects fundamental economic policies and forces to the economics of daily life to show how people and communities reproduce and sustain themselves in an increasingly privatized capitalist global economy.

Guggenheim Fellowship

Supporting exceptional creativity in the arts, these awards are given to scholars who have demonstrated outstanding ability. Applicants undergo a rigorous selection process, screened by experts in their own fields and former Guggenheim Fellows.

Joan Judge, Department of History
Joan Judge is among 184 artists, writers, scholars and scientists in Canada and the United States awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Professor Judge was recognized for her work in East Asian Studies. Her research has focused on the materiality of ideas, and on the interpenetration of Chinese and Western epistemologies of nation, gender and the body from the turn of the 20th century. Her current book-length research project, "China’s Mundane Revolution: Cheap Print, Vernacular Knowledge, and Common Reading in the Long Republic, 1894-1955," asserts the historical value of intellectual detritus. A descent into an increasingly lowly register of texts, it asks what crude print editions, their seemingly random assemblages of knowledge, and their inquiring readers can teach us about the vagaries – and failures – of China’s iconic 20th century revolutions.

Michael Helm, Department of English
Professor Helm was awarded with a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019 for his exceptional achievements in the field of fiction, and was one of two York professors chosen to receive the accolade from a group of close to 3,000 applicants during the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation's 95th competition. He is the author of four novels - all of which were national or international award finalists - as well as personal essay and writing on fiction, poetry, and visual arts. His work has appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including Tin House, Literary Pub, The Millions, and Brick, where he serves as an editor.

Killam Program

The Canada Council for the Arts awards Killam Research Fellowships to support scholars in carrying out ground-breaking projects in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering, while the Killam Prize recognizes and celebrates our most inspiring scholars and thought leaders with one annual prize in each of the fields of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering.

2018

Deanne Williams, Department of English
Williams was awarded a 2018 Killam Research Fellowship by the Canada Council for the Arts, to undertake the first ever study devoted to the history of the girl actor from the Middle Ages to the English Revolution.

2015

Adrian Shubert, Department of History
Shubert was awarded a 2015 Killam Research Fellowship by the Canada Council for the Arts for his research on Baldomero Espartero, a Spaniard who went from poverty and obscurity to being offered the Spanish throne. Shubert was the first York Professor in almost a decade to win a Killam Research Fellowship.

2021

Stephen Gill, Department of Politics
Gill earned the Killam Prize in the Social Science category. In addition to his role at York, he is a senior associate member at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. His teaching is in the fields of international relations, global political economy, and social and political theory. His scholarship points out the growing conflict between the unrestrained pursuit of profit and life-sustaining processes, emphasizing the dire need for radical changes in public policy to mitigate the root causes of many major health problems around the world.

SSHRC Impact Awards

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, or SSHRC, presents these awards in order to outstanding researchers in order to celebrate their achievements, training, and outreach activities, recognizing the role post-secondary institutions play in promoting research knowledge.

Department of Politics professor Leah Vosko was recognized for excellence in research by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and was the recipient of their prestigious Impact Award (Insight Category) in 2019. She is an internationally renowned social scientist. Having overseen numerous path-breaking research projects, her contributions to scholarly knowledge, networks, and learning tools have made lasting impacts within academe. She is the author of numerous books, articles, chapters, and technical reports, in addition to several edited scholarly volumes.

Department of Social Science professor Carla Lipsig-Mummé was recognized for excellence in research by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) in 2018. Lipsig-Mummé is the recipient of the SSHRC’s prestigious Impact Award (Partnership Category). She is principal investigator of the “Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Change” project, which brings together 56 individual researchers and 25 partner organizations and unions in seven countries. Its groundbreaking work has been recognized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

School of Social Work professor Susan McGrath was recognized for excellence in research with the Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Impact Award in 2015. McGrath’s innovative work in leading the Refugee Research Network has resulted in a successful research partnership that works to improve the well-being of refugee and forced migrants. McGrath received the Partnership Award, which is given to a partnership that, through mutual cooperation and shared intellectual leadership and resources, has demonstrated impact and influence both within and beyond the social sciences and humanities.

York President's Research Excellence Awards

These awards celebrate established full-time faculty members who are select in their fields, and have made significant contributions to both advancing York University’s international reputation for research excellence and its community’s intellectual life.

Julia Creet, Department of English
President's Research Impact Award
Professor Creet was selected for this award as a reflection of her research on digital privacy, data mining, genealogy, and memory. She has produced both traditional research outputs and edited essay collection, as well as innovative contributions including a workshop on genealogy and genetics, and a documentary film titled, "Datamining the Deceased: Ancestry and the Business of Family."

Deanne Williams, Department of English
President's Research Excellence Award
Professor Williams was selected for this award as a reflection for her accomplishments in medieval and Shakespeare studies. She is the author of several groundbreaking monographs that have had a notable impact in these fields, and is a strong contributor to York University's intellectual life as well - serving on a number of committees in the Department of English and proving students with experiential learning opportunities.

Marcello Musto, Department of Sociology
President's Emerging Research Leadership Award
Professor Musto was selected for this award as a reflection of his scholarly publications. He is acknowledged globally as one of the key authors who has made very significant contributions to the revival of Marx studies. In particular, he has reconstructed the stages of Marx’s critique of capitalism in light of the new historical-critical edition of his writings. Musto has an impressive publication record, authoring four and editing seven books, in addition to many articles and book chapters, since he moved into the tenure stream ago.

York Distinguished Research Professors

Demonstrating scholarly achievements, these individuals are recognized for their excellence in research, extensive publication and continuing contributions to their field. Recipients have an international reputation in their area of study.

YearFacultyDepartment
2018Bernard LightmanHumanities
2017Jonathan EdmondsonHistory
2014Isabella BakkerPolitics
2011Nicholas RogersHistory
2010Patricia ArmstrongSociology
2009Sheila EmbletonLanguages, Literatures
& Linguistics
2005Stephen GillPolitics
1997Paul E. LovejoyHistory

YearFacultyDepartment
2005Stuart ShankerPsychology
2001H. Vivian NellesHistory
2001Reginald WhitakerPolitical Science
2000James CarleyEnglish
1999Michael HerrenHumanities
1999Leo PanitchPolitical Science
1998Lorraine CodePhilosophy
1994Jack GranatsteinHistory
1993Ian JarviePhilosophy
1992Michael KaterHistory
1992Gareth MorganAdministrative Studies
1989John BosherHistory
1984Jerome C ChenHistory
1983John O’NeillSociology

York Research Chairs

Building on the world-renowned research being done at York University, these competitive appointments support and recognize excellence in research and scholarship in all areas and disciplines, as well as research leadership.

Lorne Foster, School of Public Policy & Administration
Professor Foster is the Director of the Institute for Social Research and the Director of the Diversity & Human Rights Certificate, the first academic-industry human rights training partnership. His trailblazing work on public policy formation and scholarship on the human rights approach to inclusive organizational change ranks among the best in its field. This work has consistently helped to open doors to new scholarly explorations.

Kristin Andrews, Department of Philosophy
Professor Andrews is a Tier 2 York Research Chair in Animal Minds. Her interests are in animal and child social cognition and moral development. She has worked with dolphins in Hawaii and orangutans in Borneo. Her research area is in the philosophy of psychology. Her first book, Do Apes Read Minds?, was published by MIT Press in 2012. She is in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Department of Philosophy.

Uzo Anucha, School of Social Work,
Professor Anucha is a Tier 2 York Research Chair in Youth and Contexts of Inequity. Her research is conceptualized as a community dialogue centred on equitable collaborations with community stakeholders. She is the Provincial Academic Director of the Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange (YouthREX), a multi-million investment by the Ontario government. YouthREX is an innovative knowledge hub that makes research evidence and evaluation practices accessible to Ontario’s youth sector through capacity building, knowledge exchange and evaluation leadership.

Jacob Beck, Department of Philosophy
Professor Beck is a Tier 2 VISTA York Research Chair in Philosophy of Visual Perception. Beck's research interests include the study of mental representation and consciousness from an empirically informed philosophical perspective. Most of his current research centres on three issues: the format of mental representation, the perception–cognition boundary, and how consciousness and representation interrelate.

Eve Haque, Department of Languages, Literature & Linguistics
Professor Haque was awarded the York Research Chair in Linguistic Diversity and Community Vitality. She has research and teaching interests that include multiculturalism, white settler colonialism and language policy, with a focus on the regulation and representation of racialized groups in white settler societies. Her current research focus is on the recognition and language rights of non-official language communities in Canada. She is also the author of Multiculturalism Within a Bilingual Framework: Language, Race and Belonging in Canada.

Jimmy Huang, School of Information Technology
Professor Huang is a Tier 2 York Research Chair in Big Data Analytics. His research focuses on the areas of information retrieval, big data and their applications to the web and medical healthcare. The objective of his research program is to overcome limitations of existing information retrieval methods and to formally develop a new retrieval paradigm called context-sensitive and task-aware information search for big data.

Carmela Murdocca, Department of Sociology
Professor Murdocca examines racialization, criminalization and social histories of racial and colonial violence. Her work is concerned with the social and legal politics of repair, redress and reparations. She has been a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Culture at the School of Law and the Center for Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University.

LA&PS Postdoctoral Fellows

The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) has introduced an inaugural postdoctoral fellowship program. Fellows receive a funded, one-year postdoctoral research position to conduct their proposed research project under the guidance of a faculty supervisor.

With the support of the Dean’s Office and LA&PS Research Office, these fellowships give researchers the opportunity to further pursue their academic interests with experts in the field and enhance the outstanding research being done in LA&PS.

Teddy Atim is a visiting fellow at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University. She will work with supervisor Annie Bunting, an associate professor in the Law & Society program. Professor Bunting is also the Project Director for the Conjugal Slavery in War (CSiW) Partnership, a SSHRC Partnership Grant. Atim’s project is titled, “The legacies for wartime sexual violence in northern Uganda: Social reintegration of women survivors and children born of war in northern Uganda.” Her project will examine the contextual factors that shape and influence war-time sexual violence, and women’s agency to overcome their wartime experiences. Atim’s research falls under a LA&PS initiative Championing Emerging Black Scholars. 

Lance Balthazar is an adjunct professor in the Department of Philosophy at Austin Community College. He will work with supervisors Jacob Beck and Kevin Lande with the department of Philosophy, on a project titled, “How Things Look and Why They Look That Way: Investigations in Vision at the Empirical-Philosophical Intersection.” Balthazar’s research falls under two themes: investigating the ways things look and investigating the psychophysics and visual processing which produce the looks of things. Balthazar’s research falls under a LA&PS initiative Championing Emerging Black Scholars. 

Blair Fix is a political economist based in Toronto. His research focuses on how energy use and income inequality relate to social hierarchy. He will work with supervisor Jonathan Nitzan with the department of Politics on a project called, “Does Hierarchy Drive Income Inequality?” His work will examine how hierarchy relates to the growth of in-equality. By studying how growing income inequality relates to the hierarchical structure within firms, Fix looks to illuminate new ways to combat inequality.

Lauren Nareau is a doctoral student and current fellow and researcher at Energy Poverty PIRE in Southern Africa (EPPSA). Working under the supervision of Natasha Myers in the Anthropology department, her project is titled, “Cultivating Energy, Sowing Empire: making biofuels out of colonial legacies.”  Using an abolitionist framework and anticolonial methods that are reshaping anthropological theory and practice, her research seeks to create a community-led, collaborative project that opens constructive dialogue about prison labor and the plant Marabú to understand how Afro-Cuban communities are staging new relationships with plants for a new future.

LA&PS Research Awards

These awards recognize Liberal Arts & Professional Studies faculty members’ excellent research and the impact that work has on academic and social communities, as well as their commitment to engaging York University students.

Margaret Schotte, Department of History
Emerging Research Category

David Goldstein, Department of English
Established Researcher Category

Ali Asgary, School of Administrative Studies

Niruapama Agrawal, School of Administrative Studies
Established Researcher Category
Professor Agrawal is a founding member of the Disaster & Emergency Management program, and an accomplished researcher in her field, with two books, several articles across 18 peer-reviewed journals, and many other pieces co-published with graduate students.

Chris Chapman, School of Social Work
Emerging Researcher Category
Professor Chapman's work expands the field of disability research by shedding light on important social issues and assessing the interlocking oppression that exists between them. With several journal articles, a co-authored book, and a co-authored play, Chapman tackles these topics head-on.

Carmela Murdocca, Department of Sociology
Distinction in Social Justice Research
Professor Murdocca's research focuses on the sociology of law, race and gender to shed light on various injustices. Her in-depth analysis of criminalization, racial violence, and social exclusion experienced by racialized and Indigenous people in Canada is thought-provoking and informative.

Shobna Nijhawan, Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics
Established Researcher Category
Professor Nijhawan is lauded for her work on South Asian literatures and languages, as well as gender, feminist, and women's studies - offering quality, quantity, scope, and breadth. Her writing credits included two monographs and several book chapters.

Jennifer Korosi, Department of Geography
Emerging Researcher Category
Professor Korosi is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of limnology, paleo-limnology, and bio-geochemistry. She is also an expert in ecosystem change, including pollutant tracking and aquatic environments.

Miriam Smith, Department of Social Science
Established Researcher Category
Professor Smith is known for her expertise in comparative politics and political science. She has also had a significant influence on the theoretical approach associated with historical institutionalism, LGBTQ+ political mobilization in
Canada and the US, and the study of civil society and social movements.

Sylwia Chrostowska, Department of Humanities
Emerging Researcher Category
Professor Chrostowska is widely recognized by her peers for successfully straddling the divide between academic writing and literature.

Luin Goldring, Department of Sociology
Social Justice Research Category
Professor Goldring is the winner of the biennial LA&PS Award in Social Justice Research. Known for her ground-breaking work on the experiences of migrant workers in Canada, she exemplifies the spirit of social justice.

Joan Judge, Department of History
Established Researcher Category
One of the most respected scholars of modern Chinese history and culture, Professor Judge has influenced an entire generation of historians.

Alice MacLachlan, Department of Philosophy
Emerging Researcher Category
Professor MacLachlan was described by her peers as a brilliant research leader. She is also well known as a thought leader in ethics, feminist philosophy and the role of apology in establishing trust.

Hassan Qudrat-Ullah, School of Administrative Studies
Established Researcher Category
A highly prolific researcher in the field of decision sciences and system dynamics approach, Professor Hassan Qudrat-Ullah is skilled at mobilizing resources to establish his own innovative research niche.

Jonathan Edmondson, Department of History
Established Researcher Category
Professor Edmondson received the LA&PS Award for Distinction in Research, Creativity or Scholarship in the Established Researcher category. He is world-renowned as an expert on the Roman Empire, Roman inscriptions and Roman social history. His body of work, as well as his strong commitment to sharing his research, has shed light on the Roman world for scholars, students and the public.

“I’m excited about my research on the Roman Empire, especially Roman Spain, because it’s given me access to a range of new monuments with inscriptions, previously unpublished, that have the potential to throw new light on the impact of Rome on Indigenous societies,” said Edmondson. “Although people have been studying the Roman Empire for centuries, we can always pose new questions about, and gain fresh insights into, the Roman world.”

Boyd Cothran, Department of History
Emerging Researcher Category
Professor Cothran was presented with this award in the Winter 2017 semester. Since earning his PhD four years ago, he has achieved an outstanding record of scholarly research in the growing field of Indigenous history. His work, shared in both academic and public venues, is reframing the U.S. narrative and places Indigenous history at its centre.

“What excites me the most about the growing field of Indigenous history is how we are rewriting the history of North America by reclaiming the central role Indigenous peoples have played in the development of our shared society,” said Cothran. “For too long, historians wrote histories of North America that ignored Indigenous people, denying them a history and by extension a future. Indigenous history is an exciting field because every day it seems like there are new stories being discovered and new perspectives on old subjects being shared.”

Sean Kheraj, Department of History
Emerging Researcher Category
Professor Kheraj is being recognized in the Emerging Researcher category for his inspiring scholarship and his academic and public reach. Since defending his dissertation in 2008, he has been exceptionally productive, innovative and dynamic as a Canadian environmental historian.

Jimmy Huang, School of Information Technology
Established Researcher Category
Professor Huang, Director of the School of Information Technology, is known for his expertise and creativity in the quickly changing fields of information retrieval and big data analytics with complex structures. Since 2003 Professor Huang has had a remarkable publication record of over 170 papers in the most respected journals and top-tier conferences in information technology.

Lesley Jacobs, Department of Political Science, Department of Social Science
Established Researcher Category
Professor Jacobs is recognized nationally and internationally for his interdisciplinary research in the fields of law, socio-legal studies, social science and political science. His areas of expertise include international trade, human rights, race relations, and law and political theory.

Eric Mykhalovskiy, Department of Sociology
Distinction in Social Justice Research
Professor Mykhalovskiy is the winner of the inaugural Social Justice Research Award in LA&PS for his research in the sociology of health and healthcare.

Linda Peake, Department of Social Science
Established Researcher Category

Our first winner in the Established Researcher category is Linda Peake, professor in the department of social science and director of York University’s City Institute.

Professor Peake describes herself as a critical human geographer, exploring the feminist geographies of gender, race and sexuality, particularly as they relate to the global south. Over the past 30 years she and her graduate students have worked extensively with grassroots organizations in Guyana, conducting research aimed at improving the lives of local women.

Lesley Wood, Department of Sociology
Emerging Researcher Category

Professor Wood's research marries theory with social activism, examining the complex dynamics of social movements through a variety of lenses.  Her research has included surveying G20 protesters in the thick of a demonstration, interviewing activists about their organizational and strategic choices, studying the impact of policing on protest and examining the characteristics of the U.S. anti-war movement.