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Maybe it’s as subtle as not wearing pink to work, or as drastic as downplaying certain traits to in order to stay safe. Maybe it’s the difference between how “tomboys” and “sissy boys” are treated. Either way, there’s no escaping it: society still equates “feminine” with “less than”. But where do these assumptions come from? And, more importantly, how can we change them?

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.

Two professors in the Faculty of Arts are among the Royal Society of Canada’s Class of 2020. Professor Imre Szeman (Communication Arts) has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), and Professor Jay Dolmage (English) has been named to the RSC’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

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.

The way we feel about our bodies changes across our relationships, according to a new study. Research co-led by a graduate student from the Department of Psychology asked young women to indicate the way they perceive their bodies and whether that perception changes when they are with different people from their social circles.

Canada’s post COVID-19 economy will see more automation, particularly in the retail and manufacturing sectors. Economics professor Joel Blit used data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to analyze which industries are likely to undergo the greatest automation as the economy recovers from the pandemic.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $1,084,087 grant to the University of Waterloo to support “Integrating Archives Unleashed Cloud with Archive-It” led by Ian Milligan, professor of History. Archives Unleashed Project’s analytical tools will be integrated with the Internet Archive’s Archive-It service providing an end-to-end process for collecting and studying archived web records and data.

On March 6, 2020, Arts hosted its Three Minute Thesis (3MT) faculty-level heat and advanced Psychology PhD candidate Martin Turpin (first place winner and People's Choice winner) and Psychology master's student Sarena (second place winner) to the university-wide finals. While that university-wide final is now being held virtually, this doesn't mean our Arts graduate student competitors don't need your support. 

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.”