Research Matters 2016

Rethinking the state of housing in Cape Breton

CATHERINE LEVITEN-REID

CBU.ca/research

MANAGING EDITOR

Donald Calabrese

WRITERS

Donald Calabrese

Laura Fraser

Demmarest Haney

Pamela Johnson

GRAPHIC/LAYOUT DESIGN

Chad Aucoin

PHOTOGRAPHY

Corey Katz

CONTACT

Office of Research and Graduate Studies

Cape Breton University

PO Box 5300, 1250 Grand Lake Road

Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

B1P 6L2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Tanya Brann-Barrett, Dean of Research, Teaching and Graduate Studies

Dr. Peter MacIntyre pioneers new methods in the study of language learning

Spreading the word: Marcia Ostashewski has a plan for research dissemination

Cover Story: Rethinking Rental Housing in Cape Breton with Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid

Nano Solutions with Dr. Shine Xu Zhang

Preserving Language at L’nui’sultimkeweyo’kuom: Yvette Sylliboy

Building Community Connectivity at The Cooperative Study Club

Highlights from 2015 Annual Report

Research Matters represents a moment in the continuing story of research at Cape Breton University (CBU). As Dean of Research, Teaching and Graduate Studies, I am energized by the depth and impact our researchers’ work has in their respective fields and in the public worldwide.

While Research Matters is a celebration of the achievements of CBU’s researchers, it is also an acknowledgement of the immense labour that culminates in those notable achievements. This issue focuses on the work of only a few but reflects the widespread commitment to creating and disseminating knowledge. An exciting report on Dr. Peter MacIntyre’s pioneering study in language learning anchors this issue. In addition to leading methodological development in his field, Dr. MacIntyre was also the 2015 recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Research.

Our cover story features Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid, whose research on rental housing in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) has immediate and urgent implications for determining public policy. Similarly, this issue features an introduction to The Cooperative Study Club: a space that links the roots of cooperative learning in Cape Breton with contemporary trends in academic community engagement. We also profile Dr. Marcia Ostashewski. A Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Communities and Cultures, Dr. Ostashewski’s focus continues to broaden taking in a spectrum of Cape Breton Island’s cultures. Embracing multiple ways of engaging with communities and disseminating research, Dr. Ostashewski creates direct links between the researcher and the public including online resources. It has always been a priority to celebrate student work

in Research Matters, and we are happy to profile here Yvette Sylliboy whose study is a force of preservation for Indigenous language and culture. Dr. Shine Xu Zhang’s profile is an inspiring introduction to his wonderfully innovative work in mine water remediation and pancreatic cancer treatment. Finally, this edition of Research Matters includes highlights from our 2015 Annual Research Report providing more insights into research activity at Cape Breton University.

Research Matters is one forum through which we can help disseminate the important work of CBU’s talented community of researchers. We are pleased to present some of the excellent work taking place at this time at Cape Breton University that has an impact here and beyond.

R E S E A R C H M A T T E R S 2

DEAN’SMESSAGE

Dr. Tanya Brann-Barrett, Dean of Research, Teaching and Graduate Studies

3 C A P E B R E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y

Dr. Peter MacIntyre, Professor of Psychology,Recipient of the President’s Award for

Excellence in Research

“ Anxiety has been well studied, and we know quite a lot about the cognitive, academic, social and even physical effects of anxiety arousal. We know much less about the specific consequences of enjoyment, for example.”


Dr. Peter MacIntyre is Professor of Psychology and the 2015 winner of the Cape Breton University President’s Award for Excellence in Research. Having published extensively on the psychology of language learning, Dr. MacInytre has, over the course of his career, become a leading innovator in his field. Most recently, he co-authored Capitalizing on Language Learners’ Individuality (2014) with Tammy Gregersen and co-edited Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning (2015) with Zoltán Dörnyei and Alastair Henry. The latter seeks to boldly reimagine the methodology of data collection in language learning. Starting out as a committed undergraduate in the communication labs right here at CBU, Dr. MacIntyre finds himself in the midst of a distinguished career among a group of likeminded, international researchers who are devising an innovative, new methodology of research.

Throughout the history of the discipline, in general, psychology has tended toward a preoccupation with negative experiences such as stress and anxiety. In language learning, a focus on problems with learning and communication has been a prevailing trend. According to Dr. MacIntyre, one of the most interesting innovations in the work he does has been investigating the use of happiness and positive emotion in language learning. He explains, “There

has been surprisingly little research on positive emotion in language learning. I think most people recognize the value of positive emotion, but it simply has not been a research area.” With this realization comes the unique approach to study that Dr. MacIntyre and his colleagues are pioneering. Furthermore, he suggests, “Anxiety has been well studied, and we know quite a lot about the cognitive, academic, social and even physical effects of anxiety arousal. We know much less about the specific consequences of enjoyment, for example.”

Dr. MacIntyre’s work focuses on the dynamic changes in emotion and cognition that take place as part of the psychology of communication. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the notion of dynamism in psychology and the radical departure it impels for the study of communication psychology. Dr. MacIntyre explains the value of this dynamic shift, aware that the field more broadly does not necessarily accept the departure. Conducting traditional research on motivation in second language acquisition would normally mean administering questionnaires and studying large numbers of people at one time. He says, “There is talk of a ‘dynamic turn’ in the literature, but the field has not yet embraced the concept fully. There has been well-accepted,

theoretical work advocating looking at the dynamics of language. But, there is a pressing need to advance the methodologies that can be used to study processes and retain their complexity. That is one of the reasons for our research – to work out at least one method that can be used in this area.”

Much of this new research takes place in the new language lab at Cape Breton University. The plain hallway in an otherwise unremarkable part of campus, belies the location of the world-class language lab. The facility (built with funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation awarded to Dr. MacIntyre and Dr. Erin Robertson, as well as funding from the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust) has allowed Dr. MacIntyre, his students and colleagues to move their work from classrooms to the carefully constructed, meticulously controlled environment of the language lab. High quality audio-visual recording equipment in a thoroughly soundproofed environment allows researchers in the lab to measure, moment by moment, a person’s emotional responses to the process of language learning. Most importantly, the lab allows for the perfect conditions in which to practice new research methods and to gather accurate valuable data.

Breaking Ground on a new Method


Spreading the word:

Marcia Ostashewski has a plan for research disseminationSince Dr. Marcia Ostashewski’s first academic inquiries in Cape Breton in 2008, there has been a strengthening bond between academics and local ethnic communities—between the people, their histories and practices. In a place where Scottish ancestry (particularly its music and dance) is widely perceived as the prevailing cultural impulse, Dr. Ostashewski’s work is novel. Supported by a Visiting Research Fellowship with the Centre for Cape Breton Studies and then a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Dr. Ostashewski first worked with local Ukrainian communities but has since expanded her research program to include a greater diversity of Eastern and Central European communities in Cape Breton to include Cape Bretoners of Polish, Croatian, Jewish and Hungarian descent; Nova Scotians of African ancestry, and other local, ethnocultural communities. Since 2005, Ostashewski has been involved in collaborative projects with First Nations and Métis, particularly ones that explore encounters between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups. In 2015, she expanded her research beyond ethnocultural communities to work with at-risk youth and other local interest groups.

In all of her work, she brings together – as co-researchers – scholars and students from across disciplines, artist-practitioners, professionals from across heritage and other public sector institutions (including public libraries, schools, cultural centres and social

service providers) and private industry. These are cross-sector actors, advocates and activists who understand the relevance of sound, movement and multimedia studies in addressing social, political and environmental issues of urgent importance who come together to communicate their perspectives, co-create knowledge and develop best practices of collaboration, communication and policy formulation.

In her most recent (and most comprehensive) project, diversitycapebreton.ca, Dr. Ostashewski worked with an international interdisciplinary team of scholars, students, community members, digital media and education specialists, to create a publicly accessible web portal and archive that constitutes a virtual Cape Breton Island where visitors can tour heritage buildings, hear interviews and musics of cultural activities that were shared in these actual locations. An online archive showcases information shared with the program’s researchers, such as stories, songs, photos, videos, documents and other materials. A variety of curricular and other educational resources provide users with learning opportunities about the research gathered and items stored in the archive. School teachers can also access curriculum materials prepared for various grade levels. Online users are also invited to become involved in the ongoing creation of exhibits and resources on the website. This type of wide collaboration between researchers, community members,

organizations, government bodies, institutions and other stakeholders helps to further the goals of community sustainability and research that is both collaborative with, and beneficial to, local community groups. Dr. Ostashewski explains, “My aim, in working with communities, is to find ways in which I can contribute, and I am very grateful to those communities who have welcomed me, my students and colleagues to work with them as they build on their strengths, address their challenges and celebrate their communities.”

In the of fall 2014, Dr. Ostashewski’s celebrated Singing Storytellers partnership with the Celtic Colours International Festival saw her hosting a symposium that, along with a scholarly conference on campus, involved a highly-attended full day of workshops at the McConnell Library. The symposium featured musicians and bardic practices from five continents including two Malian griots who led workshops with hundreds of schoolchildren in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and an off-Broadway theatre company that performed at CBU’s Boardmore Playhouse. Noting the widespread attention this event garnered, Dr. Ostashewski says, “This event gained national attention from libraries across the country and around the world, and I, along with representatives from the McConnell Library, have been asked to speak in Toronto about the collaboration. Educational film materials produced for this project are also currently being featured in exhibits at the British Library in London.”


The epicentre of these, and several other public engagement research projects, is the Collaborative Music and Movement Laboratory at Cape Breton University (The CoMM Lab).

With the support of The Canadian Foundationfor Innovation and Nova Scotia ResearchInnovation Trust, Dr. Ostashewski’s lab will help to foster the collaborative creation,presentation and critical scholarly inquiry intoinnovative, creative music and dance projectsto address concrete social problems togetherwith the communities that face them. Usingthe technology available at The CoMM Lab,Dr. Ostashewski’s work will emerge at theforefront of digital humanities research. When it is realized, the CoMM Lab will be anessential tool for dissemination and knowledgemobilization, as well as an accessible entry pointfor the communities of people to whom Dr. Ostashewski’s research is devoted.

“ My aim, in working with communities, is to find ways in which I can contribute – and I am very grateful to those communities who have welcomed me, my students and colleagues to work with them as they build on their strengths, address their challenges and celebrate their communities.”

Dr. Marcia Ostashewski, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Communities and Culture

Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid, Associate Professor in the Master of Business Administration in Community Economic Development (MBA in CED) program, does research on housing and social economy organizations (non-profits and co-operatives). She is currently conducting an inventory of rental housing in the CBRM in partnership with Cape Breton Community Housing. This project involves capturing vacancy rates, rents and the location of rental housing vis-à-vis important services in the community. Tenants of this rental housing will also be approached as part of the research project as a way to understand the quality, affordability and security of rental housing in the community in which CBU is located. That research is funded by the Homelessness Partnership Strategy.

Dr. Leviten-Reid’s research is not only helping local organizations transition to housing first (meaning that individuals on the margins are placed in housing and have access to services as a way to help them get back on their feet) but is also informing policy and housing literature. Most of the housing research in this country is

conducted in cities like Winnipeg and Toronto.

Meanwhile, at a policy level, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation takes the pulse of the rental housing market in communities like CBRM by collecting data from buildings with three or more units in them. In CBRM, however, the rental housing universe looks quite a bit different.

This is not the first project Dr. Leviten-Reid has conducted in partnership with local actors. In the spring of 2013, Leviten-Reid completed a study of Supported Housing for Individuals with Mental Illness (SHIMI) with Pamela Johnson and Michael Miller. The SHIMI advisory committee was able to apply the results of this evaluation to their work, and results were also published in the Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health. Dr. Leviten-Reid is passionate about the research that she does and embraces the opportunity to work with community organizations to study real-world problems (ones which also have theoretical implications). She also feels privileged to have the opportunity

to work with, teach and learn from students in the MBA in CED program. Dr. Leviten-Reid has published articles on social economy and social care in journals including the Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, VOLUNTAS: The International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations and the Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research. Dr. Leviten-Reid is on the board of the Affordable Housing Renovation Partnership, is a member of an inter-organizational committee overseeing the 2016 homelessness count in CBRM and recently served on the economic advisory committee for the Nova Scotia Commission on Building our New Economy. From 2010-15, Dr. Leviten-Reid was also a co-investigator in a major SSHRC funded Community University Research Alliance (CURA) called “Measuring the Co-operative Difference.”

Originally from Ontario, Dr. Leviten- Reid completed her PhD in Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan before joining CBU.

Rethinking Rental Housing in Cape Breton


Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid, Associate Professor of Community Economic Development


“ Doing research with, and of benefit to, the community is what makes me passionate about the work that I do.”

Even as a boy, Dr. Shine Xu Zhang knew that he wanted to study science and medicine. Both of his parents were doctors – and Zhang wanted to create the technology they and, ultimately, patients most need.“I understood how important medical technology was,” he says. “I didn’t want to be a medical doctor – I wanted to help medical doctors to do their job.”

To do that, Dr. Zhang took his master’s in biophysics, a doctorate in chemistry and focused his post-doctoral research on nanotechnology at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. He combined his expertise and his research in those three fields of study, which helped him win a fellowship from the Canadian Institute for Health Research to investigate how to use nanoparticles to deliver chemotherapy and radiation to cancer patients.

Dr. Zhang has continued this groundbreaking cancer research at Cape Breton University’s Verschuren Centre – where he’s also collaborating with other scientists to use nanotechnology to remove chemical byproducts from wastewater. That’s part of what drew Dr. Zhang to the Verschuren Centre – the chance to draw upon the expertise of scientists with various backgrounds in order to create a holistic approach to solving the problems facing his industrial partners.

Dr. Zhang and Dr. Ken Oakes are working together to remove pharmaceutical byproducts from wastewater, looking specifically at the estrogen released from the birth control pills that has caused male fish to develop eggs and threatens their reproductive ability. But for human-made problems, Dr. Zhang believes there are human-made solutions.

“We believe that every nanoparticle material has its own strengths,” he said. “We can combine several strengths from different materials and... make something very useful.”For his cancer research, that means fabricating liposomes containing gold nanoparticles and the chemotherapeutics.

“We use the DNA Aptamers… to direct the nanostructures to the cancer tissues so that we can increase the local concentration of the drug along the cancer but decrease the total dosage of the anticancer drug,” says Dr. Zhang. That means the drugs are targeting the specific cells of the disease rather than diluting the treatment by targeting all of the body’s rapidly dividing cells. It’s an intense, targeted therapy – but one that has fewer side effects because the medication does not target healthy tissue.

“In the future we won’t need to treat cancer in such a time-consuming, costly way; the treatment time can

shrink from weeks of chemotherapy.” Dr. Zhang said, “Because the more concentrated drug specifically targets the cancer cells.”

“With this kind of technology, we can speed up the treatment and improve its efficiency and effectiveness,” he explains. That leads to better outcomes for medical providers because it’s more cost-effective but also for those people who might be frail or elderly and are unsure they can withstand the side effects associated with cancer treatment.

Dr. Zhang is also currently using nanotechnology to speed up the labelling of antibodies, a process that can be accomplished in minutes, compared to hours or days when using the traditional horseradish peroxidase enzyme.

“When compared to that enzyme, the nanoparticles are easy to use in industry settings,” Dr. Zhang says. “There’s no special storage requirement, and the results they produce are about 100 times more sensitive than those that can be produced using the enzymes.”

At the Verschuren Centre, Dr. Zhang can focus solely on his research and industrial partnerships rather than splitting his time between experimentation and teaching.“I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to just focus on research in an independent program.”

Nano Solutions


Dr. Shine Xu Zhang, Research Chair in Applied Nanotechnology


“ We believe that every nanoparticle material has its own strengths. We can combine several strengths from different materials and... make something very useful.”

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Dr. Zhang currently holds six patents.

• He is exploring the use of nanomaterials to remove contaminants from wastewater using photo-degradation and absorption.

• Dr. Zhang and his team members hope to work with industry to find solutions about how to give those so-called contaminants another life.

• Dr. Zhang enjoys working with industry to come up with solutions to barriers in the medical and environmental fields.

Despite its unassuming presence on the edge of the CBU campus, Kiji-Keptin Alexander Denny L’nui’sultimkeweyo’kuom (literally-place to speak Mi’kmaq) serves an enormously urgent research purpose. L’nui’sultimkeweyo’kuom, or the language lab, has become a kind of nexus point for the gathering together and coalescing of the Mi’kmaq language. A repository of language resources, collection place of spoken language recordings and meeting place for students and faculty, L’nui’sultimkeweyo’kuom buzzes with the sounds of language preservation and dissemination.

Behind much of the essential archival and transcription work happening at L’nui’sultimkeweyo’kuom is recent CBU graduate Yvette Sylliboy. Yvette grew up, and currently lives, in Eskasoni and has been working in L’nui’sultimkeweyo’kuom since May of 2015. Although Yvette’s degree is in sociology, she found herself drawn to the social aspect of Mi’kmaq language and the importance of preserving it. In May 2015, Yvette started working with Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey with its online database. During that time, Yvette worked in the lab with Jenna Bernard and Caroline Sylvester collecting the data there. Taking classes with Dr. Stephanie Inglis of Unama’ki College, and working alongside her at L’nui’sultimkeweyo’kuom, allowed Yvette to contextualize her education in her community. Yvette explains, “I wanted to be in that field that includes counselling because I want to help make a positive difference. I feel like I am doing the same thing. I’m making a positive difference by helping with my own language that is barely used today by people.”

Setting out academically to equip herself for work in counselling, it is unsurprising that Yvette found a home among the people at CBU who are not only trying to preserve a culture but to unearth lost parts of cultural history. “When I am doing something that involves my language and culture I feel like I am part of the people that are trying to save the language in hopes to bring it back. Bringing our language back will help people reconnect with our culture, elders, and other people that know or want to know Mi’kmaq,” she says.

For Yvette, the value of language extends beyond the capacity for communication. Studying the language and spreading among those from whom it has been lost is a way of rediscovering culture among individuals. “Our language today is words that were used before when everyone was fluent. Our language was used to describe our culture, lifestyle, legends and beliefs. By learning more about our language, we are learning more about our culture. This gives hope for people to learn about our culture and possibly do the actions of what our people have done before,” says Yvette.

Preserving Language at L’nui’sultimkeweyo’kuom

Yvette Sylliboy


Left: Carly Turnbull, Student Assistant, Right: Dr. Jodi McDavid, Major Research Projects Officer

Building Community ConnectivityBright curtains and handmade tables repurpose an old classroom in Sydney’s North End and easily lend a relaxed atmosphere to CBU’s Cooperative Study Club (CSC). It’s tricky to define a typical gathering at the CSC, but they all share a genuine enthusiasm for learning and sharing in common.

Discussions about food security, philosophy, theatre, popular culture and feminism all take place around these tables. On any night, the CSC might host repair cafes, public lectures, information sessions or story-telling. No matter what the event, attendees from the University and community gather to learn and share knowledge in an environment that benefits from the rigour of academic researchers but grows out of a learning initiative that began nearly a century ago.

The Cooperative Study Club’s name is influenced by the work of Rev. Jimmy Tompkins. He famously championed the Antigonish Movement and encouraged empowerment through knowledge, and he was also the Chair of many Study Clubs. These Clubs would meet in homes on an ongoing basis, and each member would

read and research, sharing their knowledge with the group. It was in this way that cooperative housing was successfully built in Glace Bay, NS, through researching Credit Unions and other housing initiatives as a community.

The CSC is also influenced by international community-university initiatives which are connected to a specific communal space and located proximate to community members. Primarily called hives, these spaces create a place for shared learning and joint research and take a good deal of their directions from the communities in which they are located.

The Cooperative Study Club was initiated by CBU’s Major Research Projects Officer, Dr. Jodi McDavid. Supported by funding from the SSHRC and CBU, the CSC’s mandate is particularly focused on creating a bridge between researchers and the community where mutual learning can occur. At the CSC, part-time student assistant, Carly Turnbull, connects academic researchers with valuable data and resources of community groups that frequently elude them.


Left: Carly Turnbull, Student Assistant, Right: Dr. Jodi McDavid, Major Research Projects Officer

Highlights from the Annual Report

DISSEMINATION METHOD 2013 2014 2015

Academic Articles 96 103 131

Arts Exhibitions 7

Books 14 9 14

Chapters 48 42 39

Introduction/Preface 9 5 4

Conference Presentations 234 227 227

Conference Organization 40 41 38

Journal Editor 30 35 15

Articles Reviewed 197 247 294

Community Events 120 135 133

Newspaper Articles 39 43 79

Radio 96 83 104

Television 29 19 12

Expert Advice 61 59 113

Policy 23 20 30

Blogs 56 37 13

Videos 31 21 32

Websites 27 31 45

Other Media 5 14 25

COLLABORATION 2013 2014 2015

Internal to CBU 68 74 124

With Community 39 56 70

With Other University 92 97 135

With Industry 17 41 73

With Non-governmental Organization 27 30 53

With Government Agency 30 28 65

RESEARCH COLLABORATIONSChelation Partners has been working closely with Cape Breton University, and we have benefitted enormously from the exceptional team that has worked with us over the past year. Technically, the staff is absolutely top notch; administratively, the staff is flexible and extremely supportive. The infrastructure that CBU has is amazing. It has been a real pleasure to work with CBU.”

Bill Cheliak, PhDVP Business DevelopmentChelation Partners Inc

Each year, the Office of Research and Graduate Studies prepares a report on the state of research at Cape Breton University. The following tables and figures are a few of the highlights that demonstrate the growth in research activities and the continuing expansion of CBU’s research culture. Data for this section is drawn from the 2015 Faculty Survey and figures prepared by the CBU Finance Office for Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO).


RESEARCH ASSISTANTS SUPERVISION CO-SUPERVISION

2013 2014 2015 2013 2014 2015

Undergraduates 123 119 134 31 31 59

Graduates 40 50 92 25 35 95

Post-doctoral Fellows 2 7 7 2 0 10

Technicians 7 15 13 1 8 18

Other 15 28 53 7 9 24

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS SUPERVISED AND CO-SUPERVISED

WHERE DOES THE FUNDING COME FROM?

FUNDING SOURCE 2015

SSHRC $320,000

NSERC $202,000

CFI $686,000

CRC $300,000

Other Federal $1,965,000

NS $576,000

Not for Profit $129,000

Business $656,000

Misc $507,000

Total $5,341,000


CBU.ca/research

Research Matters 2016

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