University to Tackle Community Challenges with New Research Funding from SSHRC
Dr. Tocheri and many of his Indonesian and other international collaborators at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) in July 2025.
Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ont. - Lakehead University is receiving over $750,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to support eight diverse projects that will advance our understanding of people, cultures, and societies.
Dr. Yuanyuan Wu and Dr. Olakunle Akingbola, professors in the Faculty of Business Administration at Lakehead’s Orillia campus, are working with over 25 rural non-profit organizations in central Ontario to examine how financial and human resource limitations impact operations and non-profits' ability to support people in their communities.
“Improving the well-being of people in underserved and marginalized communities is particularly challenging in rural areas due to geographic location, a shrinking workforce, and the unique needs of each community,” explained Dr. Wu.
Supported by a four-year, $65,689 Insight Grant, the research team will identify and understand current operational issues and explore solutions to improve the sector’s innovative capabilities to address pressing social challenges.
In another project, law professors Monique Woolnough and Larissa Speak are studying the ethics and impacts of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law’s Indigenous land-based learning curriculum. Lakehead University is the first law school in Canada to mandate this course requirement for all first-year students. The three-day Gaa-maada’ooniding – Anishinaabe for “the place where we share together” – Law Camp introduces students to Indigenous legal orders through ceremonies, art, and sharing circles led by Elders and Indigenous community members.
"Land-based learning spaces include both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, so we need to carefully study the ethics of using Indigenous land-based teaching methods in Canadian law schools to see if they truly have decolonial effects,” Speak explained.
The team is receiving a two-year $67,540 Insight Development Grant for the study, the results of which will be valuable for universities, colleges, and schools that are implementing land-based learning as part of their curriculum.
On a global scale, Dr. Matt Tocheri, professor in the Department of Anthropology, is continuing his long-term archaeological fieldwork on the Indonesian island of Flores. Dr. Tocheri and an international team of collaborators are reconstructing the environmental, biological, and cultural contexts surrounding the disappearance of Homo floresiensis (the “hobbits” of human evolution) around 50,000 years ago and an indigenous population of modern humans (~3,000-4,000 years ago) to explain why these early human populations went extinct.
“Understanding what happened to human species and populations in the past helps us, the last humans standing, make more informed decisions as we face threats to our own existence like the recent global pandemic and current climate crisis,” explained Dr. Tocheri, who is receiving a five-year Insight Grant of $360,000.
“We are grateful to SSHRC for supporting these projects that will help us navigate the complex challenges we collectively face as a society,” said Dr. Langis Roy, Vice-President, Research and Innovation.
In 2024/25, Lakehead University received almost $2.8 million in assistance from the Research Support Fund to support the indirect costs of research, including the management of intellectual property, research and administration, ethics and regulatory compliance, research resources, research facilities, and research security.
Connections Grants (one-year grant)
Dr. Charles Z. Levkoe, Department of Health Sciences, “Food Studies Digest: A Podcast to Mobilize Food Studies Knowledge”, $48,040.
Partner(s):
Canadian Association for Food Studies
Collaborators:
Kristen N. Lowitt, Queen's University
Rachel Engler-Stringer, University of Saskatchewan
Laurence Godin, Université Laval
Philip Loring, University of Guelph
Insight Grants (two-five-year grant)
Dr. Matthew W. Tocheri, Department of Anthropology, “Late Pleistocene and Holocene Archaeology of Flores, Indonesia: Human extinction versus survival”, $360,000.
Partner(s):
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Collaborators:
Elena Maria Essel, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Elizabeth G. Veatch, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Dr. Hanneke Meijer, University of Bergen
Dr. Matthew Skinner, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Matthias Meyer, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Rene Dommain, Smithsonian Institution
Sam Lin, University of Wollongong
Dr. Thomas Sutikna, National Research and Innovation Agency
Jennifer McKee, Department of Geography and the Environment, Lakehead University
Dr. Yuanyuan Wu, Faculty of Business Administration, “To Do or Not to Do: Social Innovation of Rural NPOs in Central Ontario under Resource Constraints”, $65,689.
Collaborators:
Dr. Olakunle Akingbola, Faculty of Business Administration, Lakehead University
Insight Development Grants (one-two-year grant)
Dr. Keira Loukes, School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks & Tourism, “Manoomin's stories: An Anishinaabe account of manoomin on Rice Lake, ON”, $74,999.
Dr. Michael Stevenson, Departments of History and Interdisciplinary Studies, “Canada and the Third United Nations Law of the Sea Conference, 1973-1982”, $55,343.
Dr. Monique Woolnough, Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, “Mino-waabandan Inaakonigewinan (Seeing Law in a Good Way): Indigenous land-based pedagogies, Indigenous legal orders and the mandatory Canadian law school curriculum”, $67,540.
Collaborators:
Ms. Larissa Speak, Lakehead University
Mr. Robin Sutherland, Lakehead University
Mrs. Jerri-Lynn Orr, Lakehead University
Dr. Laura Hall, Carleton University
Dr. Doris O'Brien-Teengs, Faculty of Education, “Systematic Analysis of the Indigenous Language Revitalization programs and activities of the Anishinaabemowin Boodawe Committee”, $68,102. *TO BE CONFIRMED*
Collaborators:
Dr. Paul Cormier, Lakehead University
Tyler Armstrong, Lakehead University
Andrew Manitowabi
Mary O'Donnell
Destination Horizon Grants (one-year grant)
Dr. Kathryn Amanda Maranzan, Department of Psychology, “Reducing stigma through strategic disclosure: The Honest, Open, Proud program”, $14,869.
Collaborators:
Carmen Simonsen, University of Oslo
Dr. Nicolas Rusch, Ulm University
Dorottya Ori, Heim Pal National Pediatric Institute
Dr. Luca Pingani, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia