The Niagara 2022 Canada Games provides an exciting “living laboratory” of sorts. There are all kinds of research and scholarship opportunities we can pursue that will shed light on a wide range of economic, political, social and cultural topics not only directly related to sport but relevant for society in general.
In the time leading up to the Games, we will be posting a series of articles, Q&As, profiles and other material on research and scholarship related to the Games. The series will include work already being done as well as ideas for future work. We are excited that Brock can take the lead on creating the first “academic” Canada Games.
Peter Vietgen
Associate Professor, Visual Arts Education
Faculty of Education
Peter Vietgen is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts Education in the Teacher Education Program of Brock’s Department of Educational Studies in the Faculty of Education. His research interests are varied and include teacher education and the arts; museum/gallery education and school partnerships; social justice and equity issues and the arts; Indigenous education and the arts; makerspaces; and art education in schools and non-school environments.
Asif Khowaja
Assistant Professor, Health Sciences
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Assistant Professor of Health Sciences Asif Khowaja’s work focuses on the application of health economics modelling and mixed-methods research to inform policy decisions about resource allocation in health care. Specific areas he has researched include the economic impact of quality improvement initiatives in acute care facilities and long-term care homes, the cost-effectiveness of community-based interventions for maternal and newborn health, cost-efficacy of newborn screening, vaccine effectiveness and patient-oriented research for measuring societal costs.
Valdeep Saini
Assistant Professor, Applied Disability Studies
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Valdeep Saini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Disability Studies. His primary research interest is in the translation of basic behaviour science to areas of social importance. Some applications of his research include clinical applications of behaviour analysis, quantitative analyses of behaviour, and factors that influence the generalization and maintenance of behavioural interventions.
Phillip Sullivan
Professor, Kinesiology
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Professor of Kinesiology Phillip Sullivan is interested in a variety of psycho-social aspects of sport. He is currently researching the mental health of student-athletes and mental health literacy in varsity athletics, and the effect of behavioural synchrony between individuals. His other research topics include coaching and team dynamics.
Corliss Bean
Assistant Professor, Recreation & Leisure Studies
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Assistant Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies Corliss Bean’s research involves working with community organizations at local and national levels to develop, implement and evaluate programming to foster youth psychosocial development. Her research interests include positive youth development, life skill development, sport psychology, program evaluation, girls and women, and coaching.
Nicole Chimera
Associate Professor, Kinesiology
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Nicole Chimera, Associate Professor of Kinesiology in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, researches how injuries take place and how mechanisms such as the neuromuscular system can be used to prevent injuries. Her research activities include exploring clinical movement screening tools; evaluating injury risk assessment using clinician friendly tools; and using intervention strategies to reduce risk of injury in sport and physical activity.
Kimberley Gammage and Sarah Galway
Behavioural & Population Health
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Kimberley Gammage, Professor of Kinesiology in Brock’s Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, researches body image — and in particular, positive body image — and physical activity across diverse populations. She and her students try to understand factors that can improve positive body image and reduce negative body image, including exercise, yoga and educational approaches.
Sarah Galway is a PhD candidate in Applied Health Sciences (Behavioural and Population Health) who works with Gammage. Galway’s PhD research focuses on promoting positive body image and healthy public policy as part of Gammage’s Exercise Psychology and Body-Related Experiences Lab. Research in this lab focuses on how physical activity and other health behaviours can be used to promote positive body image experiences in diverse populations.
Nota Klentrou
Associate Professor, Kinesiology
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Professor of Kinesiology Nota Klentrou uses applied and basic science approaches to study human performance and the physiological implications of exercise and sport training primarily in children and youth. Her research covers a range of topics in pediatric exercise science, musculoskeletal growth, bone metabolism, inflammation, hormonal maturation, energy availability and nutritional supplements. As a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, Klentrou has been recognized as a leader in exercise and pediatric physiology and is one of only four women to have served as the president of the society.
Karen Fricker
Associate Professor, Dramatic Arts
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts
Karen Fricker, Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts, is author of the monograph, The Original Stage Productions of Robert Lepage: Making Theatre Global, which recently won the Canadian Association of Theatre Research’s 2022 Ann Saddlemyer Award for the best book on a Canadian theatre studies topic published in a given year. She is the co-director of the international research project Circus and its Others, a theatre critic at the Toronto Star and is involved in a number of research projects about the future of theatre criticism.
Dawn Trussell
Associate Professor, Sport Management
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Dawn Trussell, Associate Professor of Sport Management, researches sport and leisure culture in the lives of individuals, families and communities, and issues of equity. Her work is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Sport Canada. Trussell was awarded Brock University’s Chancellor’s Chair for Research Excellence (2021-24) for her work on allyship and activism in sport, and works with, as she describes, an “incredibly talented” group of graduate students in the Sport, Allyship and Inclusion Lab (SAIL).
Adam Kanar
Associate Professor, Sport Management
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Adam Kanar, Associate Professor of Human Resource Management in the Goodman School of Business, has research interests in the areas of job search, employee recruitment and learner-control in technology-based training. His work has been published in respected scientific journals including Personnel Psychology, Human Performance, Journal of Educational Psychology, Career Development International and the International Journal of Human Resource Management.
Diane Mack
Professor, Kinesiology
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Central to Professor of Kinesiology Diane Mack’s research is understanding what contributes to well-being. While most of her work addresses behaviours such as physical activity and psychological mechanisms linked to well-being, work with her colleagues has extended to include behaviour change, motivation, self-compassion and pride. Her interests have been investigated using diverse study designs and include the use of meta-analytic investigations.
Yifeng Li
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Faculty of Mathematics and Science
Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Biological Sciences Yifeng Li’s research interests include artificial intelligence algorithms, machine learning, theories and applications of big data analytics, structured and unstructured data modelling, heterogeneous data integration, data mining models to bioinformatics and health informatics, among other topics.
Li is one of eight Brock researchers and scholars who received funding under the 2021-22 round of the VPR Canada Games Grant program. Here, he discusses his research project titled “Sport AI Enabled by Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning Approaches.”
Abdul Ashraf
Associate Professor, Marketing
Goodman School of Business
Abdul Ashraf is an Associate Professor of Marketing in the Goodman School of Business. He studies international marketing, marketing analytics, consumer decision-making and technology adoption. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Goodman School of Business Emerging Scholar of the Year Award.
Kyle Rich
Associate Professor, Recreation and Leisure Studies
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Kyle Rich is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies. He is interested in how community, policy, and social inclusion/exclusion shape experiences in sport, recreation, and physical activity programs, especially in rural and remote municipalities. In his research, he uses community-based and participatory methods to work with community organizers to understand and address local issues, in efforts to improve community health and well-being.
Donna Szoke
Associate Professor, Visual Arts
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA)
In her role in the Department of Visual Arts at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), Associate Professor Donna Szoke is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes video, installation, animation, drawing, writing, experimental collaboration and printmaking.
Jae Patterson
Associate Professor, Kinesiology
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
The research of Brock Associate Professor of Kinesiology Jae Patterson is focused on examining ways of training motor skills in people of all ages, from children to older adults. His work touches on topics such as different types of feedback provided by instructors regarding performance success, the benefits of instructors demonstrating skills for learners, and ways of learning more than one motor skill during practice.
Elizabeth Vlossak
Associate Professor, History
Faculty of Humanities
Associate Professor of History Elizabeth Vlossak’s research interests include the cultural history of war, women’s and gender history, border studies, nations and nationalism, critical heritage studies, and memory and the politics of commemoration. Her publications include Marianne or Germania? Nationalizing Women in Alsace 1870-1946 (Oxford University Press, 2010), and articles and book chapters on postwar reconstruction and commemoration, Nazi forced labour policies and writing the history of nationalism. Vlossak is passionate about connecting local community members with history and collaborating with them on public history projects. She has presented her work to historical societies and libraries in Niagara, is a founding member and associate fellow of The History Lab, a scholarly community engagement partnership, and is the co-director of the Sport Oral History Archive
Michael Holmes
Associate Professor, Kinesiology
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Associate Professor of Kinesiology Michael Holmes is Canada Research Chair in Neuromuscular Mechanics and Ergonomics, Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and a Graduate Faculty Member for the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. Holmes studies how the upper limb functions so as to understand repetitive strain injuries and upper extremity disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines techniques from neurophysiology and biomechanics, Holmes aims to improve worker performance and minimize workplace injury through his research.
Poling Bork
Senior Lab Instructor and Mentor, Department of Computer Science
Faculty of Mathematics and Science
Poling Bork is a Senior Lab Instructor and Mentor in the Faculty of Mathematics and Science’s Department of Computer Science. She guides students in their career paths and facilitates their involvement as research assistants and co-presenters at conferences. Bork is also the Executive Director and Director of Research for the Selective Mutism Foundation.
Catherine Parayre
Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (MLLC) & the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC)
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts
Catherine Parayre is an Associate Professor in Brock’s Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures and at the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture (STAC) at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), and co-editor of the Small Walker Press. Parayre and her team are working on a book project focusing on lacrosse.
Michele K. Donnelly
Assistant Professor, Sport Management
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Michele Donnelly is an Assistant Professor of Sport Management in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. Her research interests include gender and sport, particularly gender equality and the Olympic Movement/Games and in sport governance; alternative sport, such as roller derby, skateboarding, snowboarding; and girls- and women-only activities, including women’s home improvement workshops, entrepreneur organizations, and sport and recreation groups.
Brian Roy
Professor, Kinesiology
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
Brian Roy, Professor of Kinesiology and Interim Associate Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies, researches how exercise and diet regulate the body’s physiological systems, muscle metabolism and sport injuries. His teaching is focused on human physiology, sport nutrition and exercise physiology.
Nicole Luke
Assistant Professor, Applied Disability Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences
Luke is one of 11 Brock researchers and scholars who received funding under the 2019-2020 round of the VPR Canada Games Grant program. Here, she discusses the research she’s conducting, titled “Understanding the Impact of Participation in the Canada Games on Individual Ontario Athletes.”
Jonathan Younker
Head of Library Systems and Technology
Brock University Library
Younker is one of 11 Brock researchers and scholars to have received funding under the 2019-20 round of the VPR Canada Games Grant program. Here, he discusses the research he’s conducting, titled “Canada Games Research Collection/Support and Digital Storytelling Initiative”
Amy Friend
Assistant Professor, Visual Arts Studio
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts
The third of our series is an interview with Amy Friend, Assistant Professor, Visual Arts Studio at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts.
Dr. William Marshall
Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Statistics
Faculty of Mathematics and Science
The second of our series is an interview with Dr. William Marshall, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics in the Faculty of Mathematics and Science.
Dr. David Fancy
Professor, Theatre Praxis
Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts
The first of our series is an interview with Dr. David Fancy, Professor of Theatre Praxis at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.
