Faculty Funding — News & Updates
TWU researchers regularly receive grants and scholarships toward their field of study. Here are just a few of the award winners:
Michael Wilkinson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology, is part of an interdisciplinary group of social scientists and theologians funded by the John Templeton Foundation to investigate scientific research on the experience and expression of divine love. The Foundation has awarded more than $2 million to the three-year project titled, The Flame of Love: Scientific Research on the Experience and Expression of Godly Love in the Pentecostal Tradition. Wilkinson has teamed up with Peter Althouse of Southeastern University in Florida, and their project, Charismatic Renewal as Mission: Godly Love and the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship’s Soaking Centers, was awarded $150,000.
Dorothy Peters, Ph.D., Adjunct Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, was awarded an $81,000 two-year postdoctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for her research entitled, The Languages of Hospitality and Violence Concerning the Outsider: Multilingual Conversations in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Peters will examine the diverse ideologies expressed in the different languages of the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the attitudes of the communities of the Scrolls ranged from hospitality to violence. She will work in consultation with professors Martin Abegg, Ph.D. and Peter Flint,Ph.D.,directors of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute at TWU. Emily Lim, a graduate student in biblical studies and Peters’ research assistant, was awarded $5,000 for her participation.
David Clements, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, was awarded a $17,000 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Counsel of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant. Throughout Canada, environmentalists are raising alarm over the potentially rapid loss of native species and habitats to invasive species. Clements is studying the Garry oak meadows at TWU’s Crow’s Nest Ecological Research Area (CNERA) which, like most remnant Garry oak meadows, is dominated by invasive non-native grasses and is heavily grazed by deer. The research promises to develop restoration techniques for areas where deer populations, in combination with alien grasses, threaten to overwhelm rare plants and other organisms, like the endangered Propertius duskywing butterfly, which Clements monitors at CNERA.
Graduate Scholarship Recipients
Amanda Edworthy, received a $17,500 NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship Master’s award to pursue an MSc. Her research project is part of a 15-year study of cavity-nesting birds and mammals in BC’s Interior. Cavity-nesting species depend on holes in trees for nesting and shelter. Interior BC is a biodiversity hot-spot for cavitynesters, with more than 30 species including Northern Saw-Whet Owls, Mountain Bluebirds, Northern Flickers, and Flying Squirrels. In this study, Edworthy will track changes in cavities and connect these changes to bird population dynamics and nest success.
Katelyn Fister, received a $17,500 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship Master’s award to study treatments for people suffering from both substance use disorders and psychological trauma. While substance abuse and psychological trauma are closely linked, most substance abuse treatment programs treat the drug addiction alone, failing to address the trauma that is at its root. Fister is searching for ways to develop and implement an integrative treatment program that simultaneously addresses both the substance use disorder and the underlying psychological trauma. Her work could help government and community agencies develop more effective treatment programs.
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Did You Know?
In 2008, TWU was granted status in the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS), which comprises the major universities in Canada offering post baccalaureate degrees. Membership allows TWU to collaborate on research and share information with other graduate schools. Benefits include access to statistical information regarding graduate enrolment, programs, trends, and marketing strategies at universities across Canada, and superior reports and academic publications generated by CAGS. With this invaluable information, TWU anticipates continued positive progress in the enrolment and administration of TWU Graduate Studies.
TWU recently joined Canada’s oldest and most distinguished association of scientists and scholars. Founded in 1882 by the Marquess of Lorne who was then the Governor General, the Royal Society of Canada is dedicated to encouraging education and the advancement of knowledge in the natural and social sciences and humanities.
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