College Dean's Message

Greetings all,

Welcome to 2025! January has been a full month of lots of activities and happenings, and it looks like we are off to a busy but exciting year.

This past weekend, I attended the 2025 Kilburn Memorial Concert and heard such lovely music by saxophonist Nicolas Arsenijevic and pianist Lise Eléonore Charrin. It was an excellent experience, and I encourage all of you to take some time to enjoy the wonderful performances that are coming out of our Fine Arts Departments (some of which are featured in the Performance Corner section of this newsletter).

If you are looking for something educational to go along with February being Black History Month, I highly suggest enrolling in the Coursera offering Black Canadians: History, Presence, and Anti-Racist Futures. We now have more than 3,000 total learners and more than 700 that have officially completed the course! On Tuesday, February 11, there will be an opportunity to join The Centre for Research for Teacher Education and Development and the Faculty of Education as they share a preview of the on-demand micro-course with Dr. Andy Knight, Brandon T. Wint, and Anne-Jose Villeneuve.

If you’re looking for another event to attend, our college is also supporting the University of Alberta's Black Students' Association’s Black History Month Gala on February 22. This year the theme is “Across the Diaspora” and this special evening will celebrate the ways that Black culture is expressed throughout various countries, tribes, and groups.

As part of International Week, the college will be helping to support a keynote presentation by Meredith Preston McGhie from the Centre for Pluralism on February 3rd.

I wanted to take time in this message to celebrate some recent news. Congratulations to the Alberta School of Business on their recent NSERC funding success. It is great to see the interdisciplinary connections between Business (with their Entrepreneurship Hub or E-Hub) and the Faculty of ALES be a part of this major funding announcement. 

Congratulations to the Faculty of Education with their recent rankings in the Times Higher Education Rankings.  The Faculty of Education continues to be one of the premier faculties in the world and the rankings reflect their commitments to their students and faculty. I also want to acknowledge psychology (offered jointly between the Faculties of Arts and Science) moved up into the 126-150 tier of psychology programs in the world. Lastly, I want to congratulate Dr. Temitope Oriola on receiving the J. Gordin Kaplan Award for Excellence in Research.

I also wanted to announce some news about the positions at the college. Dr. Laura Beard will become our Associate Dean, Access, Community and Belonging, and Dr. Temitope Oriola will become our Associate Dean, Research, replacing Dr. Joanna Harrington.

As you may have seen in the Provost’s recent message, the University of Alberta continues to strengthen its efforts to support displaced scholars and students. This initiative emphasizes our shared belief in education as a catalyst for hope, resilience, and rebuilding. As presented at the Deans' Council, the Provost’s Advisory Chair Council, and Chairs’ Council, and continuing through various Faculty Councils since November 2024, this initiative is a key institutional priority that relies on our collective efforts.

To advance this work, I encourage you to get involved through the following channels:
Displaced Palestinian Student Bursary Program (2025–2029): Help spread the word to potential applicants and consider ways your faculty or department can further assist these incoming students, such as through course offerings, mentorship, or advising.

Visiting Scholars and Faculty Collaborations: The Provost’s message highlights opportunities for departments to host or collaborate with displaced academics. If you can provide research, teaching, or supervisory openings, please explore how to extend that support.

Engage with the Advisory Committee: Reach out to Dr. Yasmeen Abu-Laban (Faculty of Arts) and Dr. Vivian Mushahwar (Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry), who co-chair the Advisory Committee on Support for Displaced Palestinian Scholars and Students. Stay tuned for the Advisory Committee’s forthcoming recommendations. I sit on this committee alongside Matina and Brenda and encourage you to get in touch with any ideas or questions.

Lastly, for my next Frank Friday Session (scheduled for February 7th from 10-11:30am), I want to spend the time around two themes. The first is to provide an update on the research support activities that the college has been doing and can provide for faculty meetings.  The second is to provide an update on where we are in terms of the University of Alberta’s budget. The senior leadership at the university met January 24th to discuss the challenges with the budget over the next 3 years. With regards to other activities, please attend the launch of the Access Community and Belonging action plan on February 12. I will be facilitating the joint Board of Governors, GFC and Senate Summit on Jan 31st and I hope to see some of you there as well.

Best Regards,

Marvin

College Updates

Office of Research

Celebrating Strategic Research Initiatives Fund Recipients

Congratulations to the award recipients from within our college who successfully secured funding from Round 1 of the university’s new Strategic Research Initiatives Fund (SRIF):

• Jordan Lachler, Director, Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute, Faculty of Arts: Investigating Skills Training for Intergenerational Language Sustainability

• Michelle Maroto, Professor, Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Director, Certificate in Applied Social Science Research (CASSR); Sara Dorow, Professor, Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Director, International Institute for Qualitative Methodology (IIQM); and Jared Wesley, Professor, Political Science and Associate Dean (Graduate), Faculty of Arts; along with Karen Edwards, Director,  Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth and Families (CUP), School of Public Health and Gillian Lemermeyer, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing and Associate Director, IIQM: Developing the Transforming Research for Social Impact  (TRSI) Hub

• Sean Gouglas, Department of History, Classics, and Religion, Faculty of Arts: The First Three Years Project

To learn more about the SRIF, check out its website here. Round 3 applications are due April 28 and Round 4 applications are due September 5.

Thanking Our Peer Reviewers and Budget Justification Reviewers

Our heartfelt thanks to faculty across the college who volunteered to serve as peer reviewers for applicants to this month’s SSHRC Insight Development Grant competition. We are immensely grateful for your willingness to help other faculty members. And our thanks to the research administration staff within the College and the Research Partner Network who carried out budget justification reviews. The latter is a new service introduced in September.

Tri Agency CV Video Resource

Have you heard about the new CV format coming for future grant applications? A new video to help prepare for the new narrative-style Tri-Agency CV has been added to the Office of Research Video Library. 7-minutes in duration, and available on-demand.

Research Administration Education Series

Finding funds to carry out research is already difficult, but managing those funds following ALL the rules is its own challenge.  One of the ways the Research Partner Network is striving to support researchers and administrators is by providing education and training.  Our Research Administration Education Series (RAES) continues in the New Year with the following webinar: 

Series 2, Session 2: Tri-Agency Guide on Financial Administration

When: Friday, January 31, 11:00 AM (virtual)

Register Here

Performance Corner

Co-presented as part of International Week 2025, the Fine Arts Building Gallery is hosting an exhibition of children's book illustrations titled Flying To The Sun by Design Studies scholar Narges Noori. Noori has been awarded an IIE Artist Protection Fund Fellowship and is in residence at University of Alberta. The exhibition is open Feb. 4-8 for International Week, with a reception on Tues. Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. In addition, FAB Gallery will present current studio research by International Students pursuing Master of Fine Arts degrees in printmaking and media art. You can learn more about current and upcoming shows in the FAB Gallery HERE.

Studio Theatre's 75 anniversary season continues with [BLANK] by Alice Birch, running in the Timms Centre for the Arts from Feb. 7-15. Director Jan Selman, and Costume Designer April Viczko were recently interviewed by The Gateway about the show and the powerful role theatre can play in peoples' lives. You can also catch the New Works festival Feb. 6-9 in the Second Playing Space at the Timms Centre for the Arts. The 2025 festival, Star-crossed Fates, features fully realized theatrical productions that are completely student-written, -directed, -designed, -produced and -performed. 

The University Symphony Orchestra brings us an afternoon of power-house concertos with Harmonies of the Heart and Strife: Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Haydn, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m at the Winspear, featuring 2024 Concerto Competition winner Matthew Craig, voice student, soprano Wiktoria Jurkiewiczi, and piano faculty Jacques C. Després. And at Convocation Hall on Feb.14 at 7:30 p.m., solo pianist Viktoria Reiswich-Dapp promises the perfect musical Valentine with Spring-Fire, a virtuoso ride full of passion and powerful emotions. You can find current concert listings and Department of Music events at: uab.ca/concerts

Lecture: Preparing for Canadian Geopolitical Independence

Join us for a lecture with Dr. Emerson Csorba, a business executive and expert in geopolitics. In this lecture, Dr. Csorba will explore the growing need for Canada to assert its independence, especially in the face of increasing American aggression and US-China competition. 

Drawing from his leadership experience at the University of Alberta’s Campus Saint Jean (including serving as U of A Students' Union Vice-President Academic), Oxford University, and his work in geopolitics, Dr. Csorba will discuss the risks of Canadian annexation by the U.S. and the importance of diversifying alliances. In a recent Globe & Mail article, Dr. Csorba advocates for Canada to seek observer status in the BRICS+ alliance as a way to strengthen global standing and reduce reliance on the U.S. 

Now is a time for a more assertive and interests-based Canadian leadership in the world. This talk will highlight how Canada can navigate a changing geopolitical landscape, securing its sovereignty and future in a multipolar world.

To attend, please register here: https://forms.gle/t3t8nwTNX424C34v5

Time, Place, and Date: 5:30pm at CCIS 1-160 on February 27th

College News