Two FASS Researchers Awarded SSHRC Partnership Development Grants
Congratulations to the following FASS researchers who were awarded Partnership Development Grants by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in the November 2025 competition.
Dr. Kester Dyer
School for Studies in Art and Culture
With a team that includes collaborators Greg Allison and Hasi Eldib (Teaching and Learning Services), Duncan McCue (Journalism & Communication) and co-applicant Ellen Waterman (School for Studies in Art and Culture), Kester Dyer will investigate and challenge the colonial structures that underpin academic spaces and media industry environments, exploring how Indigenous-authored multidisciplinary media creation can incite interdisciplinary critical reflection and structure change in academic institutions in ways that respond to the aspirations and worldviews of Indigenous peoples. The core partnership is with Wapikoni Mobile, an Indigenous participatory filmmaking studio, with support from the Digital Arts Resource Centre in Ottawa and Nish Media, an Indigenous-run media production company in Gatineau. Together with academic partners Carleton University and Concordia University, a diverse range of workshops, internships, and other learning opportunities will counter the linguistic barriers imposed on Indigenous artists and scholars by French/English binaries in Canada and provide training in media creation skills as well as on-set experience and mentorship on Indigenous-led professional film and television productions.
Dr. Laura Horak
School for Studies in Art and Culture
Laura Horak will preserve and analyze trans films that are currently at risk of disappearing due to degraded VHS tapes, lost hard drives, and under-resourced archives. She will determine how archives can best preserve trans-made audiovisual materials while respecting trans-people’s identities and privacy and create an archive network in Canada and the United States—the “Trans Audiovisual Preservation Alliance”—to share strategies and resources for preserving these films. Furthermore, the project will generate new knowledge about the first wave of trans filmmaking by analyzing how filmmakers used aesthetics and narrative in their work, how they conceptualized the emerging term transgender, and what kinds of communities they imagined into being through filmmaking. The project will bring together TheArQuives (Toronto), the Transgender Archives (University of Victoria) and the GLBT Historical Society (San Francisco) alongside Carleton University and Queen’s University to ensure that trans filmmaking remains accessible for research, education, and community connection for generations to come.