Research Chairs

Canada Research Chair in Academic Achievement and Well-Being

Chair: Erin Maloney, Psychology

This research aims to understand the cognitive and emotional factors that underlie success in these subjects, with particular attention to how these factors are passed between parents and their children. Professor Maloney and her research team are analyzing data collected from controlled laboratory-based experiments and large-scale studies in classrooms and homes to understand the influence of factors like anxieties, stereotypes and stress.

Canada Research Chair in Contribution of Neurocognitive Functioning to Brain Health

Chair: Melanie J. Sekeres, Psychology

Professor Sekeres will investigate the neural mechanisms underlying chemotherapy-induced cognitive and behavioural disruptions such as memory impairment, anxiety and depression, which are commonly reported in breast cancer patients. Her research program will explore the correlation between lifestyle factors, such as chronic stress and exercise, and the development of cognitive impairment, thus helping to target intervention aimed at promoting recovery from chemotherapy.

Canada Research Chair in Mental Health Disparities

Chair: Monnica Williams, Psychology

Monnica Williams’ research focuses on understanding and improving psychological wellness cross-culturally through the exploration of health-related behaviours, with a special focus on stigmatized and racialized groups.

Canada Research Chair in Science and Technology

Chair: Kelly Bronson, Sociology

Kelly Bronson's research uses qualitative and innovative methods to bring rights holder needs and concerns into the design and governance of emergent and controversial technologies.

Chair in Applied Public Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Chair: Arne Stinchcombe, Psychology

Through his work, Professor Stinchcombe will address the social, cultural, and environmental factors impacting the health of older 2SLGBTQI+ adults, adopting an intersectional approach to explore the complex interactions that contribute to their well-being. This will advance health equity and meet the diverse health needs of this community in Canada.

Canada Research Chair in Macroeconomics

Chair: Isabelle Salle, Economics

As the Canada Research Chair in Macroeconomics, Dr. Isabelle Salle focuses on evaluating and enhancing public comprehension of macroeconomic policies. Together with her research team, she examines the strengths and weaknesses of two cutting-edge experimental methods—in laboratory settings and large-scale population surveys—to validate targeted and inclusive communication tools.

Canada Research Chair in Critical Surveillance and Security Studies

Chair: David Murakami Wood, Criminology

Dr. David Murakami Wood is expanding on this concept by directing studies of surveillance, security, and technology into innovative areas. His research team is concentrating on "platform cities"—urban zones where digital technologies, including surveillance and security systems, are embedded into the infrastructure to oversee various aspects of city life.

Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program

The Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program operates on the principle of reciprocal exchange of scholars and provides the opportunity for the best Canadian and American scholars to lecture, research and study in the other country. Award recipients include distinguished scholars in a wide variety of disciplines at various stages in their academic careers including junior and tenured faculty, graduate students, doctoral candidates, independent researchers and professionals.

Visiting scholars at the Centre on Governance:

• Jodi Benenson is a visiting professor and a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Governance and Public Administration at the Centre on Governance at the University of Ottawa. She also serves as an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha, where her main areas of expertise in both research and teaching encompass civic engagement, nonprofit organizations, social policy, and social equity. Prior to her current roles, she worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Tufts University and played a key role as the Academic Director for the U.S. Department of State's YSEALI Institute on Civic Engagement. Her extensive research portfolio has been featured in various academic and practical publications, and she actively collaborates with numerous local, national, and international organizations that prioritize civic engagement, equity, and representation.

• Goktug Morcol is a visiting professor and a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Governance and Public Administration at the Centre on Governance, the University of Ottawa. His home institution is the Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg. He has authored, edited, or co-edited 8 books and served as the first chair of the Section on Complexity and Network Studies of the American Society for Public Administration and the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Complexity, Governance & Networks. He is an editorial board member of Complexity, Governance & Networks, the International Journal of Public Administration and Public Organization Review.

• Howard P. Greenwald, Ph.D., has research interests in public policy, health services, evaluation, public opinion, and organizational management. He in a professor at the Sol Price School research of Public Policy at the University of Southern California (USC). Formerly, he held positions at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and Battelle Memorial Institute. He has received Fulbright Canada fellowships at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and University of Ottawa. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago (B.A.) and the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D., Sociology).

Chair in University Teaching (2021-2024)

Chair: Simon Beaudry, Psychology

The overarching goal of this program of research is to address the difficulties faced by students who find themselves in such adverse learning contexts where their psychological needs are unmet. Using a theoretical and practical rationale from Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2017), this project aims to develop tools that will build autonomous learners able to thrive in various learning contexts.

Chair in University Teaching (2020-2023)

Chair: Karine Vanthuyne, Sociological and Anthropological Studies

As part of the 3-year Chairship appointment, Professor Vanthuyne will build on an initiative led by the Indigenization and Decolonization Committee of the uOttawa Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS), in collaboration with uOttawa Indigenous Affairs and the Indigenous Resource Centre (IRC) Mashkawazìwogamig. The project will critically examine the strategies employed by the FSS’s Indigenous Curriculum Specialist (ICS) to Indigenize the FSS’s course curricula; the challenges and opportunities these strategies present for the FSS faculty, teaching assistants (TA), students, and staff; complementary approaches deployed by ICSs at other universities for Indigenizing post-secondary course curricula; and the various resources, knowledge, skills and incentives required to implement effective strategies at uOttawa and beyond.

Chaire de recherche Québec, francophonie canadienne et mutations culturelles

Chair: Martin Meunier, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies
July 2011 to June 2016
Renewed until June 2026

This Chair examines shifting identities and cultural changes in Quebec and Canada using a comparative and international methodology. It also synergizes research on Quebec studies at the University of Ottawa.

International Francophonie Research Chair on Cultural Heritage Policies

Titulaire : Jonathan Paquette, School of Political Studies
October 2019 to September 2024

This chair seeks to apply political analysis to deepen our understanding of the links between heritage policies and the decolonization of cultural heritage in Francophone areas of the world, the latter being a major issue in relations between France, Belgium, and several member states of the International Organization of la Francophonie.

International Francophonie Research Chair on Political Aspirations and Movements in Francophone Africa

Chair: Marie-Eve Desrosiers, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
February 2020 to January 2025

Analyzing the specific characteristics of the recent protests in Burkina Faso, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, this chair will aim to better understand how protest trajectories of ordinary citizens are particularly affected by the francophone, local context of French-speaking Africa.

OLBI Chair in Language Learning and Acquisition

Chair: Christopher Fennell, School of Psychology
July 2017 to June 2022

The goal of this research is to investigate the learning and acquisition of multiple languages particular psycholinguistic measures of language performance across the life span.

University of Ottawa / Institut du Savoir Montfort Joint Chair on the Health of Francophones in Ontario

Titulaire : Louise Bouchard, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies
October 2019 to September 2024

This multidisciplinary joint chair was co-created with the Institut du Savoir Montfort. The chair aims to improve our understanding of the living conditions and health of Francophones in minority communities and the language barriers they face when seeking services.

University Research Chair in Gender, Diversity and the Professions

Chair: Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, School of Sociology and Anthropology
May 2019 to April 2029

As Chairholder, professor Bourgeault aims to significantly advance scholarship and interventions concerning greater equity, diversity and inclusion of all women in leadership of different professions and their experience of psychological health and safety at work.

University Research Chair in Global Political Thought

Chair: Michael Williams, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
April 2019 to March 2024

Michael Williams’ chair will focus on the impact of ideas on international politics. The chair will place current far right parties, movements and ideas in the context of both their cross-national ideological/organizational linkages and their long historical/ideological foundations. This will provide a comprehensive intellectual and institutional analysis of wider dynamics of radical conservatism, as well as focused analysis of some of the most important and revealing areas of radical conservatism’s current impact and a critical appraisal of their implications.

University Research Chair in Stress and Mental Health

Chair: Nafissa Ismail, School of Psychology
October 2018 to September 2028

The goal of this research is to understand why adolescents are more vulnerable to developing mental health conditions. Using male and female human and rodent models, she investigates how age and sex modulate the stress response and influence stress-induced changes in the pubertal/adolescent brain.

University Research Chair on Health in Black Communities

Chair: Jude Mary Cénat, School of Psychology

August 2022 to July 2027

Based on an interdisciplinary, intersectional, collaborative and anti-racist approach, the main objective of this chair is to conduct research aimed at reducing and eliminating racial disparities in physical and mental health in black communities.

CHEO Research Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health

Chair: Nicole Racine, School of Psychology

The Research Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health will play a key role in linking together the considerable research resources of the community in services for child and youth mental health.

CN-Paul M. Tellier Chair on Business and Public Policy

Chair: Patrick Leblond, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs

The purpose of the CN-Paul M. Tellier Chair on Business and Public Policy is to: increase corporate research capacity and public policy; follow the evolution of the country’s political economy and, in particular, key issues related to a liberal society, a strong market and a responsive government to preserve institutions; and to support the University in establishing closer ties with the community of public policy, in particular taking advantage of its strategic position in the national capital.

Chair of Ukrainian Studies

Chair: Dominique Arel, School of Political Studies

The projects undertaken by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies examine the politics of memory of mass violence in the history of Ukraine (the Holodomor Famine-Genocide, the Shoah, the Soviet repression and others), the categorization of identities in censuses, the political consequences of the language dynamic and transformations of the political system. This research program is conducted internationally in collaboration with researchers in political science, history, sociology, anthropology and demography.

Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management

Chair: Michael Wernick

The purpose of the Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management is to enhance research capacity in public sector management; conduct interdisciplinary research on contemporary issues of public management; provide a focal point at the University of Ottawa for the study of public sector management; and attract new talent to careers in the public sector.

Jean-Luc Pepin Research Chair

Chair: Jennifer Wallner, School of Political Studies

The Jean-Luc Pepin Research Chair, established in memory of the respected politician and political scientist who taught at the University of Ottawa, is dedicated to the study of Canadian political institutions and their transformation in light of the changing conditions and practices of contemporary democratic governance. Three main themes currently guide the work and activities of the chair: the evolution of the relationship between politics and public administration and the political status of the Public Service; the evolving role and legislative career of Members of Parliament; and the emergence of a new institutional architecture to regulate political and governmental ethics in Canada.

Joint Chair in Women's Studies

Joint Chair with Carleton University
Chair: Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan, Sociology and anthropology

Working in both French and English, the incumbent of the Joint Chair in Women's Studies at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University teaches, engages in research and participates in several committees and events linked to Women's Studies on both campuses. They act as a resource person on women's issues and feminist research at both universities. They also establish and maintain contact with local, regional, national and international feminist educational and community-based organizations.

Joint Research Chair uOttawa-ULyon on Urban Anthropocene

Chair: Vincent Mirza, Sociological and Anthropological Studies

This collaboration between the University of Ottawa and the Université de Lyon aims to create common tools to address current urban and anthropocene issues and to construct research themes around cities and the anthropocene. This ambitious project aims to respond to an unprecedented situation by addressing "frontier" scientific themes - at the intersection of different disciplines - and by focusing on an innovative approach, an incubator for innovative research.

Konrad Adenauer Research Chair in Empirical Democracy Studies

Chair: Daniel Stockemer, School of Political Studies

Inspired by the desire to deepen bilateral relations between Canada and Germany, the Konrad Adenauer Research in Empirical Democracy Studies examines some of the key challenges of representative democracies. These include (1) the effects of migration on political attitudes (2) the populist tide that has swept the world, (3) transformations in the conduct of elections and the determinants of vote choice, and (4) unequal representation of various cohorts of the population including women, minorities and youth.

Research Chair in Taiwan Studies

Co-chairs: André Laliberté, School of Political Studies, and Scott Simon, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies

The Research Chair on Taiwan Studies will promote research, dissemination of research, and curriculum development on Taiwan Studies at the University of Ottawa. The activities of the Chair will be interdisciplinary, reaching across the disciplines and fields of the Faculty of Social Sciences.