UNBC researchers receive more than $330,000 in federal funding
History Associate Professor Dr. Jacqueline Holler and Geography Professor Dr. Greg Halseth received Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grants to continue their research programs. Holler is exploring the role women played in the practice of medicine during the colonial period. Halseth is studying the importance of local government to the economic sustainability of small towns and rural communities.
Prince George, B.C. – Two University of Northern British Columbia faculty members received Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grants to continue research into medical history and the role local governments play in promoting entrepreneurs in rural and small-town communities.
“Support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council facilitates the thorough investigations and originative explorations UNBC researchers engage in every day,“ says UNBC interim President Dr. Geoff Payne. “These projects will also provide opportunities for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers to collaborate with expert faculty members.”
History Associate Professor Dr. Jacqueline Holler received a $181,948 award for her project titled Medicines, Marvels and Mestizaje: Women’s Healing in New Spain, 1530-1750. Holler, along with two master’s students and a post-doctoral researcher will examine conventional medical treatises used in New Spain as well as convent recipe books that contained healing remedies and inquisition records that describe women’s healing activities and the herbs, medicines, and even incantations that ordinary people used to treat illness.
Geography Professor Dr. Greg Halseth received $149,388 for his project titled, Entrepreneurialism and rural/small-town local government. The project, which will include multiple graduate students, examines the critical role of local government in responding to the forces re-shaping resource-dependent communities and economies.
“These projects are superb examples of research in the humanities and social sciences underway at UNBC,” says UNBC acting Vice-President Research Dr. Kathy Lewis. “The knowledge these research teams are generating will provide insights we can use to initiate positive change today and inform the work of future scholars.”
This research is directly funded by SSHRC. The Research Support Fund, a tri-agency initiative of SSHRC, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), assists Canadian post-secondary institutions and their affiliated research hospitals and institutes with the expenses associated with managing the research funded by these three federal research-granting agencies.
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