Research centres and groups

Members of the Faculty of Social Sciences are engaged in a number of transdisciplinary research initiatives that examine issues from a variety of perspectives.

Brain and Behaviour

The Centre for Lifespan Development Research involves over 60 Brock faculty members and 40 community agencies, who collaborate to investigate psychological, social, health, neurophysiological and educational aspects of life from infancy to old age.

Brock Healthy Youth Project (BHYP) is a project being led by a transdisciplinary team of researchers from Brock University and other Canadian and international universities, as well as partner organizations and our youth engagement committee to examine the link between health-risk behaviours and adolescent brain development longitudinally.

Brock Institute for Electrophysiological Research (BIER) is a transdisciplinary research group, based in the Lifespan Centre, that highlights Brock University’s niche expertise in electrophysiological research to understand the nervous system in both human and animal species.

Community and Social Justice

The Niagara Community Observatory (NCO) is a public-policy think-tank working in partnership with the Niagara community to foster, produce and disseminate research on current and emerging issues.

The Social Justice Research Institute (SJRI) brings together researchers and students from a wide variety of disciplines to produce socially relevant and community-based scholarship on social justice issues and create connections with community organizations.

The Posthumanism Research Institute (PRI), in collaboration with other likeminded centres, institutes, and scholars across the globe, is committed to the idea that humanity’s perseverance in the coming centuries will require collaboration with agents (animal, vegetable, fungal, viral, mineral, and digital) besides those formerly classified as “human.”

Natural Resources and Environment

The Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) pursues innovative and transdisciplinary research about the environment, sustainability, and social-ecological resilience.

The Water Economics, Policy and Governance Network (WEPGN) brought together researchers and partners to share ideas, identify challenges, and develop new knowledge to improve the management of water resources in Canada and abroad. This project concluded in 2020.