As part of its ongoing strategy to strengthen research excellence, OCAD University’s Office of Research and Innovation has awarded another round of seed funding to seven faculty members who are leading or co-leading research projects.
Each recipient will receive $5,000, drawn from funding that the University receives through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Explore Grants. Seed funding is awarded by the Office of Research and Innovation following an open call for applications and an internal review of proposed research projects.
RECIPIENTS AND THEIR PROJECTS
Shea Chang, lead applicant
Associate Professor and Chair of Illustration, Faculty of Design
Associate Professor Nancy Snow and Associate Professor and Chair of Graphic Design Ali Qadeer, co-applicants
Faculty of Design
Project: OCAD U Press Exploration
The project recognizes that publication and dissemination through university presses is a key contributor to greater visibility of the academic research and creative practices coming out of the University. The project will create a conceptual framework that can serve as the basis for a sustainable platform for OCAD U’s unique approach to research with dissemination outputs and outcomes that serve and further the goals and intentions of research creation.
The project’s goals are to:
- Create a publishing entity as a site of research-creation, positioning publishing itself as a generative and critical practice at an academic institution which prioritizes making as a primary method;
- Develop novel approaches to academic and cultural publishing grounded in collaboration and interdisciplinarity, drawing on the diverse expertise of the University community;
- Mobilize OCAD U’s strengths in craft and commitment to formal-material experimentation, in the development of innovative forms of printed multiples; and
- Engage presses, artists, designers, and other knowledge holders to develop a model of university press that meaningfully bridges the worlds of art publishing and academic scholarship.
The researchers are hoping that the project can provide inspiration for other parties interested in exploring the possibilities of publishing in the contemporary moment. To this end, the researchers plan to use this project as the foundation for a grant application to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Dr. Herman Pi'ikea Clark
Professor, Faculty of Design
Project: Moʻolelo ʻIke Kiʻi: Indigenous Visual Storytelling as Research-Creation in Design Education
The project will investigate Indigenous visual storytelling as a research-creation methodology in design education, using the newly approved class Moʻolelo ʻIke Kiʻi as a grounded Indigenous example through which broader methodological questions can be explored. The project is original in positioning Indigenous visual storytelling not simply as cultural content or representational practice, but as a methodological framework for research-creation in design education.
While visual storytelling is widely used in design practice, it is typically treated as a communication tool rather than as a form of knowledge production. This project will examine how Indigenous storytelling traditions—where narrative and image function as carriers of cultural memory, relational knowledge, and place-based understanding—can inform new approaches to research and pedagogy in design.
The project is needed now because design education is increasingly grappling with questions of epistemology, representation, and relational responsibility. This research offers a way to expand those conversations beyond inclusion of cultural content toward deeper methodological transformation.
The work will benefit scholars and practitioners working in design, visual arts, Indigenous studies and education. It will also strengthen OCAD University’s leadership in Indigenous design research and provide the conceptual foundation for a future Tri-Agency proposal.
Vanessa Dion Fletcher
Lecturer, Faculty of Arts and Science
Project: Lenape Quillwork: A Pilot Catalogue for Research and Reclamation
This project will create a digital catalogue of Lenape quillwork located in museums and select private collections across Lunaapahkiing (New York City/New Jersey). The catalogue will include photographs (where permissions allow), object descriptions and metadata (e.g., materials, techniques, provenance, cataloguing history, cultural notes). The catalogue is designed to support future research on Lenape quillwork practice and to support the reclamation of Lenape artistic knowledge through engagement with our ancestral belongings.
The project responds to the urgent need to re-centre Lenape artistry and knowledge within Lunaapahkiing by building a community-attentive Catalogue of Lenape quillwork held by local museums and select private collections. By consolidating accurate photographs, descriptions, and metadata—and by identifying gaps and colonial descriptors still present in institutional records—the project advances ethical stewardship, interpretive accuracy, and continuity of practice.
The timing is critical: museums are actively revisiting descriptions and provenance while communities, artists, and educators are seeking Indigenous-led frameworks for teaching and care.
Beneficiaries include Lenape communities and artists (who gain resources for revitalization and pedagogy), students (who receive mentored research training), museums (who gain community-informed guidance), and scholars and public audiences (who gain access to responsibly shared knowledge). For the academic community and OCAD University, the project models community-engaged cataloguing, strengthens research-creation and experiential learning, and positions a credible SSHRC Insight Development/Connection program of work.
Dr. Cindy Poremba
Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts and Science
Project: Beyond Capture: Storytelling with Volumetric Images
This project represents a significant shift in Dr. Poremba’s prior practice-based research with volumetric video. Where her earlier work focused on the role of capture in volumetric meaning-making, this project takes a broader and more technically focused stance—treating volumetric image technologies (including lidar and photogrammetry) as technical design materials to be understood, modified, and pushed beyond their intended parameters.
The project’s objectives are to:
- Systematically investigate the intersection of technical properties and creative affordances for volumetric image technologies as design materials for community-based non-fiction storytelling, with particular attention to how the distinct technical characteristics of each technology (point cloud density, mesh topology, temporal resolution, real-time renderability) shape and constrain expressive possibility;
- Create and evaluate a co-design methodology for working with community partners on volumetric storytelling projects, producing replicable frameworks for possibility-space navigation, cross-sector timeline alignment, and ethical protocol development; and
- Produce the foundational technical knowledge, design research outcomes, and conference paper to support a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Horizons application in 2027.
This project will make original contributions at the intersection of spatial computing and design research, non-fiction and immersive media scholarship, and community-partnered research methodology. It advances OCAD U's commitments to socially engaged, technically grounded practice-based research within NSERC-legible parameters. The ethics framework and methodology can inform future collaborations, and help OCAD U more effectively mobilize our existing equipment and expertise.
Ilene Sova with partner, Incubator for Collaborative Expression
Associate Professor, Faculty of Art
Project: Bahamas Canada Creates
The project research builds on a successful SSHRC Connections-funded pilot residency in 2022 between OCAD University and the Incubator for Collaborative Expression in Nassau, Bahamas, which explored decolonial approaches to art practice, art education, and community-engaged research.
This project will investigate shared historical and contemporary experiences shaped by colonization in both locations, examining how contemporary art practice can function as a site of decolonial knowledge sharing, research and pedagogy.
The research focuses on three interconnected questions emerging from the pilot exchange:
- How have colonial legal and economic structures shaped contemporary understandings of gender equity and sexuality?
- What ongoing impacts does colourism have on interpersonal and systemic relations within societies shaped by British colonial rule?
- How does the climate crisis manifest in these locations through colonial land use and extractive economic policies?
This project is significant because it advances a collaborative model of research-creation that connects artistic practice, pedagogy, and community engagement across international contexts. The partnership between OCAD U and the Incubator for Collaborative Expression (ICE) builds on existing cultural and historical ties between Canada and the Bahamas. As members of the Commonwealth, both nations share legacies of British colonial governance that continue to shape social, economic, and cultural structures. Within this broader geopolitical context, the project examines how artistic practice can help address ongoing social issues rooted in colonial histories, including gender inequity, colourism, and the environmental impacts of extractive economic policies.
This project will support the preparation and resubmission of a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, planned for submission to the November 15, 2026, competition.
Julia Rose Sutherland
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Design
Project: Urban Stewardship and Indigenous Knowledge: Dye and Medicine Gardens for Creative Learning
This project aims to create a hands-on, land-based learning experience within an urban context, restoring raised beds and Indigenous medicine gardens at Heydon Park Secondary School, in collaboration with OCAD University.
Key objectives include:
- Strengthening land stewardship practices by providing Indigenous and non-Indigenous students access to land-based knowledge and hands-on engagement in urban ecological spaces;
- Integrating Indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable material research into the OCAD U Sustainable Colour Lab, supporting Material Art and Design courses in natural dye production and ethical foraging practices;
- Fostering collaborative, intergenerational partnerships between OCAD University, Indigenous artists and knowledge keepers, and the Toronto District School Board community, creating a shared framework for sustainability, stewardship and creative experimentation; and
- Generating pilot data, community engagement models, and curricular resources that will support a future Tri-Agency grant application (SSHRC Insight Grant or Connections grant, fall 2027).
Through these objectives, the project will provide Indigenous students with meaningful opportunities to access urban land and participate in stewardship practices, while advancing sustainable art and design pedagogy for all participants.
This project is significant because it creates a unique opportunity to advance land-based learning in an urban setting, providing both OCAD U and the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) community with a tangible space to engage with Indigenous knowledge, sustainability, and ecological stewardship.
By restoring the raised beds and Indigenous medicine garden at Heydon Park Secondary School, the project integrates research-creation methodologies that centre Indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable material practices, contributing to scholarship on decolonizing art and design education and fostering regenerative approaches to material production.
Sarah Tranum
Associate Professor, Faculty of Design
Project: Season 2: Designing a Humane Future Podcast Series
This project sits at the intersection of research-creation, public engagement and knowledge mobilization, which are areas of growing priority within SSHRC’s funding framework.
Designing a Humane Future is a research-creation podcast that examines how design can contribute to more equitable, sustainable, and care-centred futures. Podcasting has become a primary medium through which ideas reach broad audiences, and Designing a Humane Future podcast is already demonstrating measurable reach with over 3,200 listeners and 65,000+ readers of derived articles in Season 1 alone. The conversations generated through the podcast directly informed a book project, confirming that this format is a genuine engine for research.
This project supports the production of 10 episodes for Season 2, which will deepen that integration by producing a body of video-based, publicly accessible content that extends the podcast’s scholarly conversations into new platforms and audiences, including both academic and non-academic communities. The key development in Season 2 is a partnership with OCAD U LiVE, the University’s experiential program and production house for content creators.
The Season 2 production process will generate concrete evidence of audience reach, research impact, and the feasibility of the OCAD U LiVE partnership model, all of which will strengthen a SSHRC Insight or Connection Grant application to be submitted within two years.
