Articles by author: Brock University

• Champion of Indigenous history to be honoured at Spring Convocation

  Friday, May 29, 2026 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE — MAY 29, 2026 — R0049

  Tim Johnson has dedicated his life to sharing Indigenous history and culture with people across North America and inspiring them to learn more.

  During Brock University’s Spring Convocation next month, the President of the Niagara Academy for Indigenous Relations hopes to spark that same inspiration in the graduating class.

  Johnson will deliver the Convocation address on Thursday, June 11 at the 10 a.m. ceremony, where he will also be presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University recognizing his accomplishments and contributions.

  Throughout his expansive career of more than 45 years, Johnson has served in several roles and advised on many initiatives that amplify the importance of recognizing Indigenous history.

  During his time as Associate Director for Museum Programs at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, he launched and oversaw critically acclaimed exhibitions, programs and publications that shed light on the Indigenous experience — raising awareness of Indigenous contributions to many facets of society, from history and the arts to science, sport and contemporary music.

  Johnson’s passion for education begins with pride in his own Indigenous ancestry. Learning he’d be recognized by Brock prompted him to again reflect on his heritage.

  “This honour bestowed upon me by Brock University is deeply appreciated and represents a profound full-circle moment in my family history,” he said.

  His seventh great-grandfather, Joseph Brant, was a Mohawk leader who advocated for Indigenous allies of the Crown following the American Revolution, and Brant’s son, John Brant, fought at the Battle of Queenston Heights during the War of 1812. A statue honouring John Brant overlooks Brock’s Indigenous Healing Garden.

  “As a representative of the Crown, Maj.-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock was widely respected by Six Nations leadership and remains recognized for his valour, leadership and sacrifice along the front lines of one of the defining conflicts in the formation of Canada,” Johnson said. “To receive this honour from an institution that bears his name is both humbling and deeply meaningful to me and my family.”

  In addition to his work in the U.S., Johnson has had a notable impact in Canada, including the Niagara region.

  He served as Project Director of the recently opened Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School exhibit and visitor experience for the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford and as Lead Indigenous Curator of Sho’aríshon Park, the Neutral Nation Legacy Site in Lincoln.

  Now, as President of the Niagara Academy for Indigenous Relations, Johnson serves as Indigenous Advisor on museums, heritage and legacy for the prestigious global cultural planning firm Lord Cultural Resources.

  Johnson also offered his expertise in the development of the Great Niagara Escarpment Indigenous Cultural Map, Greenbelt Indigenous Botanical Survey and the Framework for Essential Understandings About Indigenous Peoples of the Niagara Region. He co-edited Landscape of Nations: Beyond the Mist, a book covering 13,000 years of Niagara’s Indigenous history; executive produced the award-winning documentary RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked The World; and led the curation of several Indigenous memorials, parks and public artworks in the Niagara region.

  He has been recognized for his work with the Dreamcatcher Foundation Award for Art and Culture in 2016, the King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2024 and the Mayor’s Medal from the Town of Lincoln in 2026.

  Brock’s 119th Convocation will include seven ceremonies held from Tuesday, June 9 to Friday, June 12 in the Ian Beddis Gymnasium of Brock’s Walker Sports Complex. Ceremonies will take place at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. each day, except for Friday, June 12, when only a morning ceremony is scheduled.

  All ceremonies will be livestreamed online at brocku.ca/livestream

  For more information and a full schedule of Brock’s Spring Convocation, visit brocku.ca/convocation

  Media are welcome to attend Brock’s Spring Convocation ceremonies. Photographers shooting from directly in front of the stage are asked to wear a Convocation gown, which can be arranged through Maryanne St. Denis, Associate Director, Strategic Communications.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  *Maryanne St. Denis, Associate Director, Strategic Communications, Brock University, [email protected] or 905-246-0256 

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  Categories: Media releases

• Interactive theatre research puts health-care discrimination in the spotlight

  Thursday, May 28, 2026 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE — MAY 28, 2026 — R0048

  Important lessons can be learned when art imitates life, as Brock University researchers Sheila O’Keefe-McCarthy and Valerie Michaelson have discovered through their work on systemic discrimination in the health-care system.

  O’Keefe-McCarthy, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Michaelson, Associate Professor of Health Sciences, are leading an international, multi-disciplinary team using participatory theatre to identify, confront and address health-care discrimination.

  Michaelson says dramatizing situations of patients encountering racism, stereotypes, differential treatment and other forms of discrimination is a powerful way to raise awareness and motivate change among students and professional health-care providers.

  “It’s not as if most health-care providers on their way to work say, ‘Oh, I think I’ll go discriminate today,’” she says. “People don’t realize they’re doing it and don’t realize they’re caught up in this culture of discrimination. It’s often implicit; that’s one of the things we’re trying to draw attention to.”

  Intentional or not, O’Keefe-McCarthy says the impacts of discrimination are “incredibly damaging.”

  “There’s a whole list that includes inadequate assessment, inappropriate diagnoses based on implicit bias held by health-care providers,” she says. “This translates into sub-optimal pain care, inappropriate treatment decisions and insufficient discharge planning, especially with patients who are racialized, Indigenous, gender non-binary and socio-economically disadvantaged.”

  To create the scenes for their project, the team interviewed 10 Niagara and Toronto area residents from equity-deserving groups about their experiences of discrimination in the health-care system based on their race, social class, gender and age.

  Based on those interviews, the team developed scene scripts for professional performers at Mirror Theatre, a participatory theatre company founded by co-investigator and retired Brock Professor Emeritus of Drama in Education and Applied Theatre Joe Norris.

  Over the span of three years, the research team then created and piloted a two-hour workshop for medical, nursing and applied health sciences students and licensed providers. At certain points, the performance stopped so audience members could reflect on different ways to handle the situations depicted.

  Michaelson says the participatory theatrical approach is a qualitatively different experience than sitting through an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training session.

  She says traditional EDI programs can evoke resistance in some participants who resent “being told what to do” or may give others a “false sense of confidence” that they will never discriminate again because they took the training.

  But going through the “back door” of theatre can address those views, Michaelson says.

  “When we work through the imagination, we create empathy between the person who is involved in the discrimination and the patient,” she says. “Also, when people are actively involved in creating solutions rather than being told from the top down what the solution is, they tend to be much, much more invested.”

  O’Keefe-McCarthy says the interactive performances also build on the skills being taught.

  Theatre is powerful, she says, because it allows participants to pre-live an experience and practice their response using tools provided in the intervention workshop to address implicit bias internally and how it’s expressed externally.

  Michaelson says preliminary results of pre-and post-workshop analysis were promising, with participants experiencing a “moderate to significantly large” increase in attitudinal change and awareness of cultural competence and humility.

  The next step is to explore how to introduce the training into medical school and health-care management and administration, says Michaelson.

  The team presented their findings at a May 28 symposium that launched Brock’s new Health, Art and Justice Lab.

  In addition to Michaelson and O’Keefe-McCarthy, the research team includes Professor Mona Sawhney from Queen’s University; Assistant Professor of Education Sherri Vansickle, Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies Margot Francis and Professor Emeritus Joe Norris from Brock; Professor Nisha Sajnani and Clinical Professor Joe Salvatore from New York University; and Kevin Hobbs from Mirror Theatre.

  Vansickle and Francis led the Indigenous stream of the research, which included additional funding from Brock’s Indigenous Research Grant.

  Supporting the research is the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  *Maryanne St. Denis, Associate Director, Strategic Communications, Brock University, [email protected] or 905-246-0256

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  Categories: Media releases