These three Nipissing University professors have received a combined total of almost $139,000 in research grants. (L-R)Ann-Barbara Graff, Kees Boterbloem and Francoise Noel. Photos submitted. Photo montage by Phil Novak.
These three Nipissing University professors have received a combined total of almost $139,000 in research grants.
(L-R)Ann-Barbara Graff, Kees Boterbloem and Francoise Noel. Photos submitted. Photo montage by Phil Novak. ____________________________________________________________
Grant money flowed toward Nipissing University today. Further details are included in the following news release issued today by Nipissing University: ____________________________________________________________
Three Nipissing University professors have been awarded research grants from the 2004 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) competition totaling $138,723.
Dr. Kees Boterbloem, of the History department, received a grant worth $35,650, Dr. Ann-Barbara Graff, of the English department was awarded a grant worth $62,550, and Dr. Françoise Noël, of the History department, received a grant worth $40,523.
“This is a significant accomplishment for these individuals. Nipissing University is very proud of their achievements and the work of all of our researchers,” stated Robert Hawkins, vice-president academic and research for Nipissing University.
Research is an essential and defining function of the modern university. It is part of a university professor’s mandate to not only teach but to further the knowledge base in their particular subject through creative and meticulous research.
“Research is absolutely crucial to our success as a top-level Canadian university, and we are committed to providing strong support for it now and in the future,” said Hawkins.
"Our researchers and their successes aid in our ability to attract and retain the best faculty and students and bolster our profile in the Canadian university system while simultaneously serving the community we live in locally and globally.”
Boterbloem’s grant was awarded for his research of a best-selling 17th century travel account allegedly penned by Dutch sailor Jan Struys, who soon after its publication fell under the suspicion of plagiarism and fabricating parts of his travel accounts.
Boterbloem’s research addresses these issues, along with questions of identity, reading audience, Dutch modernity, and early globalization. He has conducted archival research in Amsterdam and The Hague, and will investigate archival records and rare-book collections in Moscow, Russia, and in research libraries in the United States and Canada.
Graff’s research, entitled Darwin’s Sirens: Women Writing Evolution, examines contemporary British women’s responses to Darwinian evolutionary theory. Graff explores how nineteenth-century British women adapted and rebutted Darwinist ideas in their fiction and prose non-fiction. Her research challenges conventional assumptions about liberalism and women’s activism. It explores Darwin’s role in silencing the social constructivist approach to sexual politics, the pressures that contributed to an ideology of childbearing, and race and class prejudices.
Noël’s research focuses on the history of family and community in northeastern Ontario in the period from 1920- 60. Family rituals, social networks and involvement in community activities such as clubs and sports are examined to see how communities were formed and maintained in that period. A key source for the project will be oral history, collected through interviews with local persons relating to their family and community life.
The SSHRC grant competition is open to researchers across Canada.
SSHRC is a federal agency that promotes and supports university-based research and training. The fact that three Nipissing University professors have been awarded these prestigious grants indicates that faculty at the university spearhead some of the most important research initiatives in the country.
