Interested in learning more about our faculty’s research areas? The list below provides an at-a-glance summary of each faculty member’s research interests and allows you to search keywords. Please click on a faculty member’s name to view their full profile, contact information and recent publications.
| Faculty Member | Research Interests |
| Naomi Andrews | Social adjustment and problem behaviours (aggression and victimization); healthy and unhealthy relationships; aggression and bullying; trauma; mother-child relationships |
| Yana Berardini | Positive youth development; Community-based research; Mental health and wellness; Youth voice; Quantitative and qualitative methodologies; Program evaluation |
| Heather Chalmers | Young carers; risk behaviours (i.e. gambling) and identity formation; gender differences and decision-making |
| Maureen Connolly | Critical approaches to health and the body; autism and movement; curriculum and inclusion; narrative and arts-based inquiry; critical disability studies; phenomenology and semiotics; experiential contexts |
| Dan Cui | Immigration studies; sociology of education; international education; race, ethnicity and class; social justice and equity studies |
| Suzanne Curtin | Language and development; speech perception; word learning; oral language foundations for cognitions |
| Hannah Dyer | Cultural studies; arts and aesthetics; critical theory; gender and sexuality; racialization and racism; psychoanalysis; theories of trauma |
| Ann Farrell | Development of bullying; aggression and violence; bullying and mental health; risk factors and health outcomes of bullying |
| Christiana Okyere Folson | Racialized children and youth with disabilities; intellectual and developmental disabilities; inclusive education; equity and social justice; school and community-based services/interventions; experiences with employment |
| Kaitlin Fredericks | Youth and criminal social justice; community-based prevention and intervention programs; positive youth development; youth conceptualization and experiences of success |
| Jan C. Frijters | Reading; reading challenges; developmental psychology and educational intervention lenses; genetics and neurobiological facets of reading and reading disorders; motivational aspects of learning |
| Teresa Hill | Qualitative methodologies; community-based research; intersectionalities of marginalization; poverty and homelessness; youth sport; social determinants of health and wellbeing |
| Allyson Ion | Community-based research; child welfare; intersectionality; anti-oppressive practice; anti-carceral social work; critical policy analysis |
| Chelsea Jones | Critical disability studies; disability activism; disability art; disability justice; storytelling; media telling with the community |
| Matthew Kwan | Determinants of physical activity and health-promoting behaviour; mental health and well-being; physical literacy and activity; development coordination disorder |
| Voula Marinos | Court processes and criminal law; plea bargaining; criminal justice policy and reform; sentencing and punishment; mental health; intellectual disabilities and the courts; alternatives to imprisonment; diversion from the youth justice system |
| John McNamara | Language and learning disabilities; early identification and prevention of reading problems; dyslexia; literacy intervention |
| Danielle S. Molnar | Risk and resilience factors in health and well-being across the lifespan; perfectionism; parental and educator perceptions of perfectionism |
| Erin Panda | Developmental and educational neuroscience research; attention; reading and language; mental health and attention control; reading interventions for children with reading disabilities |
| Shauna Pomerantz | Media studies; youth studies; gender and education; sociology of education; intersectionality; social justice; feminist, post-structual and post-human theories |
| Rebecca Raby | Sociological constructions of childhood and youth; intersectionality of gender, race, class, sexuality and disability; privilege and discrimination; agency, resistance and participation |
| Heather Ramey | Child and youth engagement; youth well-being; community programs; child and youth care |
| Natalie Spadafora | Classroom incivility in adolescence; peer relationships; antisocial behaviour; educator experiences in the classroom |
| Christine Yvette Tardif-Williams | Family-based relationships with caregivers and animals; young people’s well-being; social understanding and interaction with caregivers |
| Ayda Tekok-Kilic | Anxiety; ADHD; mental health; cognitive, sensory and temperamental aspects of cognitive control and emotional regulation |
| Tricia Vause | Behavioural assessment and treatment relating to Autism Spectrum Disorder; functional behaviour-based CBT for obsessive compulsive behaviour in children with ASD; parent training; school consultation |
| Tony Volk | Child and adolescent development using a multidisciplinary lens; evolutionary approaches; bullying; parenting; antisocial personality |
| Dawn Zinga | Research as a form of play; competitive dancers; social comparison; mental health and wellness among young people |
