Featuring Martha Flaherty and Sami van Ingen
2:00 PM, Friday, March 7, 2025, Ingenuity Connection Theatre, (Cases Building, FB 2023)
For more information contact Dr. R. Harpelle, harpelle@lakeheadu.ca
The HIV Obstruction by Programmed Epigenetics (HOPE) Collaboratory, a $26.5 million NIH-funded initiative, employs a novel "block-lock-stop" approach to find an HIV cure. A key component of this project is the Community Arts Integrated Research (CAIR) program, which draws on artistic expression to enhance scientific communication and understanding. CAIR, led by Dr. Pauline Sameshima, utilizes various art forms such as dance, poetry, pottery, and visual arts to stimulate conversation and provide feedback on HIV cure research. This approach offers several benefits: 1. It provides
unique perspectives on complex scientific concepts, making them more accessible to the public. 2. It bridges the gap between scientists and communities, facilitating dialogue and mutual understanding. 3. Artworks serve as tangible representations of research goals, keeping objectives in focus.
The CAIR program integrates art into data generation, analysis, and research dissemination. This innovative approach not only educates communities but also provides valuable feedback to scientists, fostering a more inclusive and effective research process. By combining scientific expertise with community insights and artistic expression, the HOPE Collaboratory aims to accelerate the development of an HIV cure while ensuring that the resulting cure strategies are understood and welcomed by people living with HIV.
Dr. Pa
uline Sameshima is a Professor at Lakehead University and former Canada Research Chair in Arts Integrated Studies. She is an artist, poet, writer, and curriculum theorist specializing in arts integrated research. Her work focuses on creativity, interdisciplinary approaches, and community engagement. Dr. Sameshima has received numerous awards for her innovative research and teaching. She is a member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies and the Curator of the Lakehead Galleries.
This panel will address the importance of collaboration between researchers and community members, and will promote partnership beyond academia. Ultimately, the focus is to create understanding of why researcher-community collaboration matters and how regional research and knowledge transfer can impact Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario as a whole.
This panel will feature perspectives from the organizations like the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, Thunder Bay Public Library, and Thunder Bay & District Injured Workers Support Group. Discussion will address a variety of topics, including:
• The unique work environment in Northwestern Ontario in comparison to larger metropolitan areas
• Unique challenges faced by organizations in terms of occupational health and safety in our region
• Best practices for researchers to facilitate sustainable engagement with the community
To register for this event, please click here.
Panel Discussion
The Thunder Bay ID Action Group (coalition of 25 community agencies, Lakehead University researchers, and Lakehead University Legal Clinic) fills a service vacuum in Thunder Bay by hosting ID Clinics. In conversation with our community partners, we highlight the need for community based and action-oriented research.
Katie Watson is the Advocacy Director at Roots Community Food Centre and the Co-Chair of the Thunder Bay ID Action Group. They host monthly ID clinics at Roots Community Food Centre.
Rodi-Lynn Rusnick-Kinisky, LL.B. is the Director of Lakehead University Community Legal Services (LUCLS). She hosts regular ID clinics and assists other members of the Thunder Bay ID Action Group.
Chris Sanders is the Chair of Sociology at Lakehead University and the Co-Chair of the Thunder Bay ID Action Group. He assists with ID Clinics and works with community partners to advocate for systemic change.
Kristin Burnett is the Chair of the Indigenous Learning Department and a member of the Thunder Bay ID Action Group. They organize ID Clinics outside of Thunder Bay and work to address the systemic barriers facing people who require PID to access basic services and supports.
As part of this work, Burnett and Sanders carry out research to advocate for systems change.
Join us as we honour Lakehead University’s outstanding researchers. We will celebrate the achievements of faculty members,
graduate students and post-doctoral fellows as well as the contributions made by our valued research partners and sponsors. We hope to see you there!
Lakehead University's 20th Annual Research & Innovation Week will be celebrated in Thunder Bay from February 24 – 28, 
2025.
You are cordially invited to attend:
Join us in launching the 20th Annual Research & Innovation Week with greetings from dignitaries and a proclamation from the City of Thunder Bay. The opening ceremonies will be followed by our keynote speaker, Jill Heinerth, Explorer-in-Residence, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
More people have walked on the moon than have visited many of the places that Jill Heinerth has seen on Earth. From the most dangerous technical dives deep inside underwater caves, to searching for never-before-seen ecosystems inside giant Antarctic icebergs, Heinerth’s curiosity and passion about our watery planet is the driving force in her life. In her visually stunning presentations, she encourages audiences to reach beyond their limitations, challenge the unknown, and overcome their fears, while sharing practical lessons on risk management and safety, discovery learning, failure, and collaboration.
From desert oases of the Sahara to Baffin Ba
y's cold waters, Heinerth has been the hands and eyes for climatologists, archaeologists, and engineers worldwide. She led the first dives into underwater caves inside Antarctica's massive B-15 iceberg and was a lead diver on a ground-breaking US Deep Caving Team project, piloting the first accurate 3D cave mapping device using tech that’s now bound for space.
Heinerth became the first Explorer-in-Residence of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society in 2016. She is also a fellow of the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame, Underwater Academy of Arts and Sciences, Women Divers Hall of Fame, and the Explorers Club, which awarded her with the William Beebe Award. In addition, Heinerth has been honoured with the Explorer’s Club Stefansson Medal and the Wyland ICON Award, and she is the inaugural recipient of the Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration. In 2023, she received her first honorary doctorate from Victoria University of the University of Toronto.
A bestselling author, Heinerth’s first book Into the Planet, was lauded by the Wall Street Journal, Oprah Magazine, and the New York Times. Her children’s book, The Aquanut, is a Blue Ribbon Selection for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Heinerth is also the subject of a new documentary Diving into the Darkness, which won Best Documentary Feature at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where it premiered.
To register for this event by Sunday, February 23, 2025, please click here.
Join Webinar Link
The Transformation stream is designed to support large-scale, Canadian-led interdisciplinary research projects that address a major challenge with the potential to realize real and lasting change (high-reward). Deadline for NOIs is April 15, 2025.
For more information about this opportunity, please click here.
Lakehead University's Office of Indigenous Initiatives invites you to visit us for our 2nd Annual Indigenous Craft Market on Tuesday, March 4th, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during Research and Innovation Week on the Orillia campus. We hope you can join us for this great opportunity in supporting Indigenous craft vendors and artists, with an opportunity to purchase Indigenous-made crafts, art, and products.
Here is a link to directions and parking information.
Dr. Michael Rennie is an Associate Professor at Lakehead University and was the Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Ecology and Fisheries from 2015-2024. As lead researcher of the CEE Lab, Dr. Rennie oversees his team’s use of whole-lake experiments, lab studies and archival data sets to investigate how lakes and fish populations respond to ecosystem changes such as climate warming, invasive species and contaminants. He is also the acting director of Lakehead’s Aquatic Toxicology Research Centre.
Dr. Rennie is also a Research Fellow with the International Institute for Sustainable Development-Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA), where he oversees the fish population monitoring program and the site of many of CEE Lab members’ field studies and whole-lake experiments. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the biological sciences department at the University of Manitoba.
Dr. Rennie’s research is focused on understanding the fundamental linkages between metabolic performance of individuals and ecosystem-level processes, the means by which these relationships are modulated in altered environments, and how these changes affect the pathway and efficiency of energy flow through food webs.
Join us in this hands-on workshop to practice, wonder, sense, play, and connect with plants, trees, peers, and art materials. Come to expand and un/learn your research skills.
Based on the work done with five communities using a research-creation approach –N(ArT)URE– the researchers and two artists (Drs. Spadoni and Schoales) will guide you to explore how to use creativity and our relations with nature as a methodology, beyond data gathering and analysis.
Do you wonder how can we do research differently to keep up with our changing world?
Do you want to do research in a way that fosters new solutions and strengthens our relations with nature and community?
Do you want to explore how to integrate more-than-human theory into your research study and methodology?
All art materials will be provided – bring only your smile and mug
Please register at cjuando@lakeheadu.ca or click here.
