Laurier faculty member Ciann Wilson awarded Canada Research Chair and Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity

Nov. 14, 2024

Ciann Wilson, an associate professor of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University, has been named the Canada Research Chair in Community-Based Research, Ethics and Well-being in recognition of her impactful research with and alongside equity-deserving communities. The Canada Research Chair Program is also honouring Wilson with its prestigious Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity.

“For roughly 15 years, I have worked from a lens of practical, applied, action-oriented research to support diverse communities overlooked by our systems,” says Wilson. “It is humbling to receive this kind of federal acknowledgement and validation of our work.”  

The Canada Research Chair Program invests in retaining some of the world’s most accomplished minds. Wilson’s Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) position includes research funding for a five-year term, including support for Laurier student researchers. Laurier is currently home to 13 CRCs.

Using a variety of research methods, including art, digital media and storytelling, Wilson’s research spotlights the lived realities and worldviews of communities to enhance their self-determination and well-being, including disabled, HIV-positive, 2SLGBTQ+, Muslim, precariously housed, substance-using, Black and Indigenous peoples. 

“My role as an interdisciplinary scholar is to bring research tools for communities to tackle pressing issues, from mental health to homelessness and public health,” says Wilson. 

Among Wilson’s past and ongoing initiatives are Proclaiming Our Roots, the first project in Canada to archive the stories and histories of Afro-Indigenous communities; an arts-based project articulating the policy demands of homeless and precariously housed young people in Winnipeg; and a partnership to scale-up a sexual health intervention for Black and racialized youth.

Wilson has established three priorities for her CRC research program, beginning with responding to community requests for self-determination.

“Community-based research should be based on trust and respect and prioritize the issues that communities deem most important,” says Wilson.

Her second priority is to collaborate across sectors to come up with real-world solutions. Forming partnerships within industry, health care, social services and non-profits will ensure that research outcomes are practical and can be applied outside of academia. 

Finally, Wilson is working with her team to co-develop tools and resources for more ethical research practices and engagement with Indigenous and Black communities. She will dedicate her grant funding of $100,000 from the Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity to this project.

“No single person owns knowledge, yet we have scholars who build entire careers and research empires off the backs and ideas of many within a collaborative research process,” says Wilson. “We need to think differently about research ethics review processes, ask more intentional questions of researchers, and train emerging scholars to build mutually beneficial relationships with communities. These are the directives given to researchers by the communities who have been historically harmed by these processes.”

Wilson is one of just three winners of the 2023 Robbins-Ollivier Award, honouring a career that has so far included 39 peer-reviewed journal articles, 60 invited talks, eight book chapters, 15 community reports, more than 20 artistic and non-peer-reviewed outputs, and collaborations with the Government of Canada, regional governments and school boards across Ontario. She also co-developed a Community Hub at Laurier for fostering collaborative arts, digital media and mixed methods research.

Wilson’s past awards include Laurier’s Award of Service Excellence and Community Engagement; the Status of Women and Equity Award of Distinction from the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations; and the Junior Investigator Award from the Ontario HIV/AIDS Treatment Network.

“Congratulations to Dr. Wilson on this well-deserved national recognition,” says Jonathan Newman, vice-president: research at Laurier. “Her work illustrates that research can be a powerful tool for community impact. I am grateful for her continued efforts to shape an equitable, ethical research process that prioritizes the humanity and interests of participants.”