Professor Sharryn Aiken is a Successful Co-Applicant of a $2.1 Million Research Grant

Photo by Bernard Clark

Professor Sharryn Aiken

The awarding of a $2.1 million research grant for the project "A Canadian refugee research network: globalizing knowledge" from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) was announced by the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry, in Ottawa on May 12, 2008.

Professor Sharryn Aiken is one of nine co-applicants who, with project director Professor Susan McGrath of York University's School of Social Work, submitted the successful bid for funding.

Mobilizing knowledge across a Canadian and international network of researchers and research centres to study refugee and forced migration issues and find solutions to the plight of refugees is the goal of the multi-disciplinary project.

As one of two legal experts on the team, Aiken's role will be to lead the research related to refugee law and the opportunities for capacity-building of knowledge with respect to refugee policy and international refugee law.

Joining researchers from seven Canadian universities and 10 international universities in the network are 21 institutional partners, including the Canadian Council for Refugees.

The project has received the maximum amount of funding over a seven-year period in the national peer-reviewed competition for SSHRC's Strategic Knowledge Clusters program.

"The Strategic Knowledge Clusters program develops Canadian research talent by bringing together experts from many disciplines and from around the world," said SSHRC President Chad Gaffield in the council's press release announcing the 11 projects awarded funding in this category. "These talented researchers will help advance understanding of complex issues in our society and inform decision-makers in government, business and communities across Canada."

This year, Aiken has also joined Queen's University's Surveillance Project as a collaborator on the project "The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting." Initially, she will assist executive team members Associate Dean Arthur Cockfield and University of Alberta Professor Kevin Haggerty in the organization of a workshop on surveillance 10 years after 9/11 to be hosted at Queen's in 2011. Aiken will serve as the liaison with civil society organizations and promote their participation in the workshop.
SSHRC awarded a $2.5 million grant to this project as a Major Collaborative Research Initiative in February 2008. See the story at http://law.queensu.ca/news/archives/february2008/artCockfieldSuccessfulCoApplicant.html.

For a complete list of parties involved in the project "A Canadian refugee research network: globalizing knowledge," see http://www.sshrc.ca/web/winning/comp_results/2008/857_Clusters.pdf