Recognition of Scholarly Activity Award Recipients
Red Deer Polytechnic is committed to life-long learning and to advancing research and scholarly activity in our province.
In 2006, Red Deer Polytechnic and the Faculty Association created an annual fund of $10,000 to recognize significant scholarly undertakings by faculty members. Each year, a jury comprised of members from the Recognition of Scholarly Activity committee selects applications submitted by faculty members with a broad appreciation of scholarship. Since 2011, we have organized a public event to recognize the significant contributions of our faculty. Faculty are recognized for scholarly activity in four categories:
- Scholarship of Discovery
- Scholarship of Integration
- Scholarship of Application
- Scholarship of Teaching
Details about 2021 and 2020 and award winners are provided below, as well as a summary of previous recipients by year.
Congratulations to the 2021 Award Winners
Sandra MacDougall
Journal Article: “Designing wildlife-vehicle conflict observation systems to inform ecology and transportation studies.” Biological Conservation, 251. 2020.
Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) impact wildlife populations and pose a serious risk to the travelling public. In this project, a team of experts in road ecology review current systems for recording WVCs from around the world. To ensure that these programs best inform transportation planning and conservation research, the authors make recommendations regarding best practises for different user groups (e.g., volunteer and/or agency personnel), and considerations for data collection, management and visualization.
Stephen Brown, PhD
Journal Article: “Assessing New Methods to Optimally Detect Episodes of Non-metabolic Heart Rate Variability Reduction as an Indicator of Psychological Stress in Everyday Life: A Thorough Evaluation of Six Methods.” Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14. 2020.
In this project, researchers studied heart rate variability (HRV), the variation in time between successive heart beats. HRV is known to decrease when people are stressed, and chronic decreased HRV is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular disease. In this research project, healthy volunteers wore a heart monitor for 24 hours; the research team then developed and assessed new methods to detect episodes of reduced HRV that were associated with episodes of psychosocial stress. They hope to develop this into wearable technology that can warn the user of decreased HRV, in hopes of reducing stress while it is occurring.
Dustin Quirk, DBA
Journal Article: “Change is Possible: The Effects of a Corporate Social Responsibility Course on Business Student Attitudes.” International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 14(1): 49-66. 2020.
The aim of this study was to assess if fourth year undergraduate business students’ attitudes towards business ethics and corporate social responsibility changed because of taking an elective management course on the topic. Findings suggested that a course on business ethics and corporate social responsibility had significant impact on improving a business student’s attitudes towards the long-term benefits of sound business ethics and corporate social responsibility, the benefits of addressing stakeholders, the understanding of the social license to operate, and the use of social responsibility as a tool to address government regulations. The study also found that initial student attitudes (pre-course) were generally “favourable” towards business ethics and corporate social responsibility.
Roger Davis, PhD
Journal Article: “Addictive Appetites: Autophagy, Capitalism, and Mental Health.” Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture, 5(1): 69-92. 2020.
This article examines how images of self-cannibalism, or autophagy, configure a subjectivity that emphasizes the internalization of precarious existential conditions resulting from contemporary neoliberal principles. With a focus on mental health, Dr. Davis argues that the combination of self-cannibalism and individual responsibility inculcates an individual rather than collective response to mental health pathologies.
Congratulations to the 2020 Award Winners
Choon-Lee Chai, PhD
Journal Article: “Enhancing Visual Literacy of Students through Photo Elicitation,” Journal of Visual Literacy, 38(1-2), 2019.
Visual literacy refers to a set of skills parallel to alphabetic literacy, i.e. visual reading, writing, and thinking. These skills entail the ability to interpret (read), create (write), and think, all in terms of images. The published article is a culmination of Dr. Chai’s efforts in using photo-elicitation in classroom teaching since Fall 2013. The photo-elicitation assignment requires students to take, select, and interpret photographs related to sociological concepts students learn in class. It enables students to personalize and internalize classroom knowledge using images they produced. Through the process, students gain a more in-depth understanding of classroom knowledge as they generate rather than repeat knowledge.
Choon-Lee Chai, PhD and Krista Robson, PhD
Community-Based Partnership Research Project and SSHRC Publication: Making Life Easier: A Participatory Assessment of Services for Immigrant Women in Central Alberta
This community-based Photovoice research project is a partnership with the Central Alberta Immigrant Women’s Association (CAIWA) to study settlement experiences of recent immigrant women. It was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Dr. Chai was the Principal Investigator; Dr. Robson and CAIWA were co-investigators. The multi-year research project (2015-2019) involved the following phases: a survey of 154 immigrant women and a community scan of community supports for settlement, a Photovoice/interview study with 38 women, and dissemination of the Photovoice stories through public exhibitions.
Knowledge gained through this project has been shared with audiences who can create change in either practice and/or policy (for example, local settlement service providers). More importantly, the Photovoice project has enabled immigrant women, whose voices are rarely heard, to creatively and visually express their settlement experiences. The photos and narratives of immigrant women allowed the Central Alberta community to gain a deeper understanding of not only the settlement needs of immigrant women but also their resilience in the face of settlement challenges. Locally, the Photovoice project placed discipline-based knowledge in a wider social context and communicated knowledge to those who are not discipline experts but who have the responsibility and mandate to effect change.
Laura Davis, PhD
Book: Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland, Letters (University of Alberta Press, 2018)
Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland—one of Canada’s most beloved writers and one of Canada’s most significant publishers—enjoyed an unusual rapport. In this collection of annotated letters, readers gain rare insight into the private side of these literary icons. Their correspondence reveals a professional relationship that evolved into deep friendship over a period of enormous cultural change. Both were committed to the idea of Canadian writing; in a very real sense, their mutual and separate work helped bring “Canadian Literature” into being. With its insider’s view of the book business from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, Margaret Laurence and Jack McClelland, Letters presents a valuable piece of Canadian literary history curated and annotated by Davis and Linda M. Morra. This is essential reading for all those interested in Canada’s literary culture. –University of Alberta Press
Kathryn Pallister, PhD
Book: Netflix Nostalgia: Streaming the Past on Demand (Lexington Books, 2019).
Whether it’s “Flashback Friday” or “Throwback Thursday,” audiences are hungry for nostalgic film and television, and the streaming giant Netflix serves up shows from the past that satisfy this craving, in addition to producing original contemporary content with nostalgic flavor. As a part of the series “Reboots, Remakes and Adaptations” originated by series editors Dr. Carlen Lavigne and Dr. Paul Booth, this edited volume focuses exclusively on the intersection between the Netflix platform and the current nostalgia trend in popular culture. As both a creator and distributor of media texts, Netflix takes great advantage of a wide variety of audience nostalgic responses, banking on attracting audiences who seek out nostalgic content that takes them back in time, as well as new audiences who discover “old” and reimagined content.
Elaine Spencer, MSW, RCSW, RSW
Book Chapter: “Ethical Social Work Practice in the Technological Era,” The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Ethics and Values (Routledge, 2019) (co-authored with Jim Gough, PhD)
The handbook covers a wide array of topics, including such current and pressing micro and macro ethics areas such as human rights, end of life care, abortion, human trafficking, technology, intimate partner violence, (dis)ability rights, spirituality, extremist right-wing youth cultures, food distribution, bullying in the workplace, and the political and economic ethics of privatization and austerity in social work. This chapter leads the section of the handbook on technological issues, and introduces broad concepts such as the history and progression of technology, the impacts of technology on the practice of social work, ethical challenges (including a wide-lens look at the “digital divide”), the personal use of technology and social media, and recommendations for ethical social work practice integrating technology.
Jeff Wigelsworth, PhD
Book: All Souls College, Oxford in the Early Eighteenth Century: Piety, Political Imposition and Legacy of the Glorious Revolution (Brill, 2018)
In the first detailed history of All Souls College under the Wardenship of Bernard Gardiner, Jeff Wigelsworth offers a character-driven story that addresses scheming, duplicity, and self-righteousness projected against some of the most important political and religious episodes of the early eighteenth century and the people who animated them. Throughout this book, Jeff illuminates the ways in which All Souls and its Warden were caught between competing visions of what England, and consequently Oxford, would look like in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. This book is directed at readers who are interested in the history of eighteenth-century England, the history of universities, and the legacy of the 1688 Revolution.
Previous Recognition of Scholarly Activity Recipients by Year
2019
Roger Davis, PhD
Two Articles: “‘Why Should It Be Us Who Die For You?’: Dystopian Reproduction in The Girl With All the Gifts.” Handmaids, Tributes, and Carers: Dystopian Females’ Roles and Goals. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018. 18-35. and “Food for Thoughts: Thinking Through Cannibals and Plagiarists.” University of Toronto Quarterly 87.1 (2018): 176-195.
Krista Robson, PhD, and Michelle Edwards Thomson, MLIS
Scoping Review: Inisoteyakh - Walking Together: Applying OCAP® to College Research in Central Alberta
Robbie J. Halonen, PhD
Journal Article: "Computing the Polarimetric and Photometric Variability of Be Stars.” The Astrophysical Journal 852(2), 2018.
Brenda Joyce, MSW, RSW, and Alison Jeppesen, PhD
Project: Challenges and Successes: Faculty Reflections on a College Teaching Development Program
Carlen Lavigne, PhD
Book: Post-Apocalyptic Patriarchy: American Television and Gendered Visions of Survival
2018
Jenna Butler, PhD
Book Chapter: “Unbodying the Bawdy in Robert Kroetsch” in Robert Kroetsch: Essays on His Works
Trish Campbell, PhD
Project: Making Sense of the Abortion Pill: A Sociotechnical Analysis of RU486 Canada
Laura Davis, PhD
Book: Margaret Laurence Writes Africa and Canada
Elaine Spencer
Book: Social Work Ethics: Progressive, Practical and Relational Approaches
2017
Kristen Gulbransen and Candi Raudebaugh
Project: Interprofessional Communities of Practice: Fostering Resilience in Post-Secondary Students
Heather Marcovitch, PhD
Articles: “The Yellow Book: Reshaping the Fin de Siėcle” and “Oscar Wilde at the Shaw Festival (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada)”
Leanne Vig
Workshop Roundtable Discussion: Classroom Activities and Two (2) Conference Presentations: “Innovative Strategies for Teaching Financial Accounting in a College Setting” (co-presented with Randy Nicholls) and “Intro to Accounting: Smarties Activity”
2016
Jenna Butler, PhD
Book: A Profession of Hope: Farming on the Edge of the Grizzly Trail
Keith Hansen
Articles: “Coach Evaluation from Three Perspectives: An Athletic Director, a Coach and a Consultant” in International Sport Coaching Journal and “Relationship among Coaching Success, Servant Leadership, Cohesion and Social Behaviours” in International Sport Coaching Journal
Ken Heather
Canada’s Expert for Welding and Mentor to the Team Canada Welding Competitor for the 2015 WorldSkills Competition
Elissa Odgren
Book Chapter: “Learning How to Build Community without Following the Instructions: Finding Pieces of Resistance in The Lego Movie” in Popular Culture as Pedagogy
Clayton Pottinger
Article: “The Gold Medal Profile Research Project for Basketball Canada”
Elaine Spencer
Paper: “No Regrets: Suggestions for Improvements to Public Apologies”
Baiju Pallicka Vareed, PhD
Book: NGOs and Participatory Development in India
Dale Wheeler, PhD
Performances: Pianos Galore
Jeff Wigelsworth, PhD
Book and Selected Chapters: Atheism and Deism Revalued: Heterodox Religious Identified in Britain, 1650 – 1800
2015
Elena Antoniadis, PhD
Project: Sport Related Closed Head Injuries
Liz Hagell
Project with Dr. Sandra Davidson & Sheila McKay: Faculty Navigator Program: Supporting the Transition from Practice to Education and the Process of Teacher Formation for New and Novice Nurse Educators
Brandi Heather
Project with Robyn Bagley: Adapted Sport Programming in Red Deer – Active Start and Fundamentals Program and Adapted Soccer
Robin Lambert
Visual Arts Project: I should like to give you a kiss
Jeff Wigelsworth, PhD
Article: “Of Gowns and Governments: The Spectre of James II at the University of Oxford in the early Eighteenth Century” in History of Universities
2014
Choon-Lee Chai, PhD, and Krista Robson, PhD
Project: Collaboration with the Central Alberta Immigrant Women’s Association – Developing a Community Plan for Immigrant Women’s Economic Security
Alison Jeppesen, PhD
Article: “Political Bedfellows: Tullia, Dolabella, and Caelius” in Arethusa
Alison Jeppesen, PhD
Book Chapter: “Roman Household” in Themes in Roman Society and Culture: An Introduction to Ancient Rome
Carlen Lavigne, PhD
Book: Cyberpunk Women, Feminism and Science Fiction
Scott Letwin
Project: Mind Mapping
Heather Marcovitch, PhD
Article: “Dance, Ritual, and Arthur Symon’s London Nights” in English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920
Jim Thomson
Multiple PD Workshops for Skills-Canada – Alberta
2013
Laura Davis, PhD
Article: “Joy Kogawa’s Obasan: Canadian Multiculturalism and Japanese-Canadian Internment” in British Journal of Canadian Studies
Laura Davis, PhD, and Roger Davis, PhD
Textbook: Essay Writing for Canadian Students, with Readings, 7th Edition
Robin Lambert
Visual Arts Project: The only thing I know for sure is that while I am looking for you, you are looking for me
Larry Reese
Feature Length Documentary Film: Mapping Creativity
Brandi Robinson
Project: Incorporating Community Service Learning into the Adapted Physical Education Diploma Program
Dale Wheeler, PhD
Solo Piano Recital Tour throughout Alberta: Liszt Extravaganza
2012
Guillermo Barron, PhD
Projects: Philosophers’ Café and the Annual World Religions Conference
Louise Dyjur
Article: “Math for Meds: An Analytic Exemplar of the Social Organization of Nurses’ Knowledge” in Nursing Philosophy
Carlen Lavigne, PhD, and Heather Marcovitch, PhD
Book: American Remakes of British Television: Transformations and Mistranslations
Daniel Martin, PhD
Book Chapter: “Wilkie Collins and Risk” in Blackwell Companion to Sensational Fiction
Brandi Robinson
Presentation: Want to Know If They Really Get It? Creative Evaluation
Krista Robson, PhD
Project: Community Service Learning in Sociology