News

Our brilliant researchers have done it again. Waterloo is ranked the top comprehensive institution for Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grants, according to the Maclean’s 2021 rankings. In fact, the University held first place last year and for the majority of years over the past decade. Researchers and staff in the Faculty of Arts play a significant part in this outstanding track record for funding success.

How will the disruptions of 2020 affect children, their development and schooling? Professors Janice Aurini (Sociology and Legal Studies), Dillon Browne (Psychology) and Kristina Llewellyn (Social Development Studies) joined this online community lecture moderated by Sheila Ager, Dean of Arts, to explore social and developmental consequences and how we can avoid exacerbating the effects of the global pandemic. Watch the full event.

Janet Jones, a PhD candidate in Philosophy has been recognized for her wonderful dissertation work titled “It Probably Won’t Help Anyway: How Stigma Hurts Health Care Access for Persons with an Addiction” and is the recipient of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship for her work.

Serena McDiarmid, a PhD candidate in Psychology, has been recognized with the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship for her incredible research proposal titled “Supporting second language acquisition of Canada’s child refugees: a longitudinal study of risk and protective factors for language learning success.”

She is the type of student who is not easily forgotten, wrote her nominator. The positive impact that new graduate Kiera McMaster leaves on her peers and wider community was recently recognized when she won the Faculty of Arts Award for Excellence in Service.

When he was an undergraduate in Winnipeg, Harrison Oakes (MA ’16, PhD '20) witnessed the difficulty of promoting change for marginalized groups when he sat in on hearings for Manitoba’s proposed Bill 18. People argued that they couldn’t see how the legislation for anti-bullying to protect LGBTQ+ youth applied to all kids. Seven years later, Oakes’ doctoral research helps to answer that question.

Since the COVID-19 lockdown, the University of Waterloo has released a steady stream of media advisories with Waterloo experts on all aspects of the pandemic -- and many of these feature experts in the Faculty of Arts. Last week included a Q and A with Joel Blit on re-starting the economy, and this week includes a Q and A with Mikal Skuterud on labour data, CERB, and jobs.

As Italy plans to slowly ease the country’s seven-week lockdown, Arts alum Esmeralda da Conceicaoshares her experiences of living in the northern city of Bologna before and during the pandemic. "I would like Canadians reading this story to feel solidarity by uniting as a community." 

During this extraordinary time of physical distancing in our community, new measures have been established to shift academia to online delivery. One of the most important milestones for PhD students is their in-person dissertation defence, which represents the culmination of years of hard work and dedication to their research.

Graduate students from English, Fine Arts, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Theological Studies and Sociology convened Friday, March 6th for the annual Arts Three Minute Thesis (3MT) heat. Audience members learned about the engaging and illuminating graduate research happening in the Faculty of Arts firsthand from many of our impressive graduate students.