Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies Andrea Doucet has received Brock University’s 2022 Award for Distinguished Research and Creative Activity.

Doucet, who is Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Gender, Work and Care, is a nationally recognized expert in changing care and work lives and policies, with a longstanding research focus on parental leave policies, caregiving fathers and breadwinning mothers, and innovative methodological approaches for the study of people’s everyday lives.

“Caregiving, workplace policies and gender roles are of major concern as people strive to provide the best care for their families as they fulfil multiple obligations,” says Brock University Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon.

“Dr. Doucet’s track record of publishing, attracting funding for and providing leadership in these areas is outstanding and has earned national and international recognition.”

Doucet was first named CRC in 2011. Her Chair was renewed in 2018 following an impressive list of accomplishments during her first term. The federal government created the CRC program to attract and retain top researchers who contribute knowledge, understanding and solutions to society and are confirmed by their peers as being exceptional researchers and leaders in their field.

Doucet is currently heading up an international team of researchers to study how child-care services, parental leave policies and employment policies are experienced by diverse Canadian families. She is doing so through a $2.5-million grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), which was awarded in 2020 for the seven-year research program, Reimagining Care/Work Policies.

Recognizing the need for what Doucet calls “relational, responsive and responsible research approaches” that attend to the rich diversity of people’s everyday care and work lives, her partnership research program builds partly on lessons learned from working with recent Brock post-doctoral fellows.

These include, for example, two projects that Doucet co-led with Eva Jewell, in collaboration with the Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre on Indigenous unemployment in the Niagara region and on Indigenous experiences of combining employment with the care of elderly or disabled adults and a project co-led with Sadie-Goddard-Durant (Adjunct Professor in Sociology) with TAIBU Community Health Centre on young Black motherhood.

“I am truly honoured to receive this award and the recognition from my peers,” says Doucet.

“I’m so grateful for my awesome team, including the 10 post-doctoral fellows that I’ve had the privilege to mentor and learn from, my excellent students, my Project Manager Jennifer Turner, and the unwavering support of my colleagues in the Social Justice Research Institute, Sociology, Women’s and Gender Studies, the FOSS Dean’s Office, the Office of Research Services, and the Office of the Vice-President, Research,” she says.

With her Distinguished Research and Creative Activity (DRCA) award, Doucet plans to support graduate students in the Research Studio for Narrative, Visual and Digital Methods.

Brock’s DRCA award, valued at $10,000, recognizes faculty whose distinguished research or creative activity demonstrates outstanding research achievements, contributions to the training of future researchers and strong performance in scholarly or creative performance.