Research Initiatives

TRU research covers a broad spectrum of fields, with a focus on extensive undergraduate involvement, multidisciplinary work driven by strong connections between departments, and close ties with the regional communities we serve.

Faculty of Arts Research and Project Awards

Emily Hutchinson - Department of Philosophy, History, and Politics

I recently received an Arts Research Award to cover the part of the cost of reviewing a series of documents in the Archives Nationales de France. The are documents recording criminal court cases, and specifically letters of arrest, pleas and letters of abolition between the dates 1409-1418. These documents help us understand patterns of urban partisanship and violence in Paris during a period known for its high rates of arrests and confiscations of goods. The series are letters of pardon which provide details relating to the cases made by successful defendants. The information gathered will contribute directly to two articles I am writing and to a monograph on factionalism during the French civil war. The series, furthermore, unexpectedly provided additional archival evidence for an article I am very close to completing called “Fama, honour and violence in a fifteenth-century war of words”, and which I expect to submit to the Oxford journal, Past and Present. In these documents, I found that the reputation (fama) of the political criminals played a key role in the king’s decision to have the accused pardoned or condemned; moreover, if they were acquitted or pardoned, their fama was wholly restored.

Principal Investigator: P. J. Murphy, Department of English & Modern Languages

The Establishment of a B.C. Penitentiary/Bill Miner Archive at the Old Courthouse, Kamloops

Two years ago I facilitated the acquisition of the B.C. Penitentiary Archive for Thompson Rivers University (a major collection of national importance). This Faculty of Arts Research Project will focus on the realia, those material culture items which constitute such a rich and important component of the B.C. Penitentiary Archive. My research project will entail extensive interviewing of Mr. Martin concerning the realia and the transcriptions can then be made available in various ways in the Old Courthouse to make the visiting of the Archive a more entertaining and educational experience for all – an exemplary case of “town and gown” cooperation.

Darryl Carlyle-Moses – Department of Geography

Impacts of Forest Disturbance on Water and Energy Balances in South-Central British Columbia

My research program examines the impact that MPB, wildfire and harvesting disturbances have on water and energy balances from the canopy to the rooting zone in mature and juvenile (regenerating) forests as well as cut-blocks. With regards to the Faculty of Arts Research Award, the funds awarded were geared towards evaluating the spatio-temporal distribution of soil moisture in study stands located within the Mayson Lake Hydrological Processes Study area.

Sandra Vermeulen - Department of Psychology

"Restorative Justice"

I am currently working with a multidisciplinary team of researchers who are interested in the community and the justice system (Restorative Justice, Reintegration/Rehabilitation, and Prevention). Presently, I am collaborating on two streams of research as part of this research group—research on restorative justice and social cognition with offenders. The Faculty of Arts Award is partially funding two restorative justice projects.

Vance MacLaren - Department of Psychology

"Responses to a Standard Set of Facial Expressions"

We hope to develop an experimental paradigm to answer some basic questions about human emotion: Do people differ in a stable way regarding their tendencies toward approach (happiness, aggression) and withdrawal (sadness, fear)? Do people differ in their unique ability to express or inhibit approach and withdrawal emotions and behaviors? Do stable personality traits relate in a meaningful way to behaviors that are impulsive, compulsive, or addictive?

Shima Iuchi - Department of Visual & Performing Arts

Professional Development in Digital Media: Animation Effects, Video Editing, and Web Design

The Faculty of Arts Research and Professional Project Award provides significant support towards my Professional Development interests in New Media (such as photographic and video editing, creating animation effects, and web design). This has been achieved by taking an intensive three-week workshop in Digital Media at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, summer, 2008.

John Hallonquist - Department of Psychology

“Diurnal vs. Nocturnal Behaviour in an Animal Model”

This project analyzes activity in a rodent species which can be either diurnal (day active) or nocturnal (night active). The main focus is how light intensity interacts with other factors to reverse the animals’ circadian rhythms relative to 24-hour environmental cues. Findings may help understand abnormal circadian rhythms such as those that contribute to sleep disorders in normally diurnal humans.

Dirunal vs. Nocturnal Behaviour in an Animal Model

Melinda Spooner - Department of Visual & Performing Arts

"(IN)visible Land: Banff Stories"

In her essay “Looking Around: Where We Are, Where We Could Be”, Lucy Lippard speaks about the “Greek root of the word “ecology” meaning home and the notion of a location or a connection to place related to “ecology”. There are those who say we have lost our places in the world, and in turn our understanding for the earth. But the concept “think globally, act locally” is one that exists within a smaller community in part because of the close proximity of culture to nature.

In this series of paintings and audio recordings, I collected narratives from residents of Banff about their individual attachment to places while in residence, at the Banff Centre for the Arts . The residency “Making Artistic Inquiry Visible” brought together a group of artists, writers, curators, and other creative and cultural producers to explore the relationships between research and artistic practice. This work was displayed in at the Banff Public library and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Aug of 2008. Within a library- culture, nature and collective narratives are housed to give us a sense of “home” or how we can locate ourselves both regionally and worldwide.

Kelly-Anne Maddox – Department of English & Modern Languages

"Consumerism, popular culture and identity in contemporary Quebec film and literature”

This study focuses on the role of consumerism and popular culture in the formation of contemporary Quebec identity in literature and film.

David Scheffel - Department of Sociology and Anthropology

"Peripheral Aboriginals in the Philippines"

This project involves indigenous hunters and gatherers living on three islands of the Western Visayas: Guimaras, Panay, and Boracay. Local aboriginal people, known as Ati or 'Negritos', have been driven off their ancestral lands by the steady incursion of 'forces of progress' such as logging, farming and urban expansion. The aim of the project is to establish personal contact with them to assess their adaptation to the forces of progress. A group of advanced TRU students participated in this field research which is a first step of a larger project in collaboration at several universities in the Phillipines.

Michael Woloszyn - Department of Psychology

"Aggression Levels and Violent Video Games"

This project will study the effects of playing violent video games on subsequent aggression levels. A data base of video games will be created, organizing the games in order of difficulty, violence, realism and game type. This will be followed by a pilot study contrasting the effects of these games. The long-term objectives over the next 3-5 years will be: to assess the method of weighting the games; to bring methodologically sound experimental evidence to bear on the effect of the games, and, finally, to re-cast the "General Aggression Model" in terms of outcome of this project.

Ernie Kroeger - Department of Visual and Performing Arts

"Pine Beetles: Beetle Letters / My Morning Walk / Walking plus Art"

The first project is a creative work investigating the relationship between image and text, ultiamtely leading to a manuscript entitled "Beetle Letters." This will be a collaborative project, in which a variety of writers and poets will assist in translating bark beetle writing. The second project is an artist's book entitled "My Morning Walk," and the third project involves ongiong research into the photographic history of Kamloops.

Ila Crawford - Department of Visual and Performing Arts

"An Untold Story: Valuing Women's Contributions to Community Life"

My project examines the roles that women occupy in their lives as homemakers, mothers, business women, and as significant contributors to Kamloops community and public life. Through photography and screen printing I explore support groups and relationships that nurture women and their efforts in the community, such as book clubs, stitching circles, coffee groups, women's business groups, Aboriginal healing circles, university women's clubs, sororities and mother's groups. Ultimately I am looking for glimpses into women's ways of being that represent women, not as victims but as active agents in their own lives.

Mapping Quality of Life and the Culture of Small Cities

A Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The Thompson Rivers University-based research program focuses on mapping quality of life and the culture of Canada's small cities, with a specific emphasis on Kamloops, Nanaimo, Prince George, Port Moody, and the cities of the Comox Valley. The Research team includes 37 community research partners and 26 TRU researchers working in collaboration with faculty from the University of Northern British Columbia; University of New Brunswick, Saint John; and, University of Waterloo.

The Centre for Innovation and Culture in the Arts

CiCAC is a working space to facilitate progressive artist-research production at Thompson Rivers University.The goals of CiCAC are twofold: (1) to develop a collaborative network of artist-researchers who will explore the social, economic, and political implications of the concept of the global-in-the-local through their cultural production (focussing on new media, literature and visual and performance arts), and (2) to disseminate this cultural production widely and to the general public through a variety of means including publication, new media events, curatorial projects, exhibitions, and public symposia. More information at www.cicac.ca.

To learn more about the research intiatives of the Faculty of Arts please visit the TRU Research website.