Announcing the BRN IGNITE Grant 5.0 recipients
The Black Research Network is pleased to announce the recipients of the BRN IGNITE Grant 5.0.
This year’s recipients are advancing work across health, education, sport and the built environment, with projects that explore lived experiences, challenge systemic inequities and generate new approaches to inclusive research and practice.
The BRN IGNITE Grant 5.0 offered $5,000 to $15,000 to support interdisciplinary research and professional development for Black faculty, librarians, postdoctoral scholars, clinical scientists, and medical research fellows and residents at the University of Toronto.
Since its 2022 launch, $246,750 has been awarded through the BRN IGNITE Grant to 32 researchers across the university.
Meet this year’s recipients:
Edgar Akuffo-Addo is a medical research fellow in the department of dermatology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. Their project, Living with Pain and Stigma: The Lived Experiences of Black Women Living with Hidradenitis Suppurativa in Canada, aims to uncover barriers, stigma and unmet needs among Black women who have sought dermatological care.
Hidradenitis suppurativa is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder reported to be more prevalent among Black and African American populations than other racial groups. While Canadian epidemiological data remain limited, a preliminary study found a four per cent prevalence among Canadians, with higher rates among women. Race-specific prevalence in Canada, however, is not yet well established.
The findings will help inform goals, interventions and initiatives aimed at addressing these disparities.
Anne-Marie Armstrong is an assistant professor, teaching stream, at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. Her project, At the Margins: Architecture, Infrastructure, and Everyday Experience, asks what it means to study architecture not designed for people but that nonetheless shapes the human experience.
Drawing on an ongoing research project, the work examines architectural forms not intended for direct human habitation – such as telecommunication towers, substations and water systems – to expand understanding of memory, marginality and cultural identity in urban environments.
Armstrong is a founding member of the Black Architects and Interior Designers Association.
Fikile Nxumalo is an associate professor in the department of curriculum, teaching and learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Her project, The Black Ecologies in Education Collaboratory, aims to co-create relationship-based and culturally grounded approaches to environmental education for Black children in Grades R to 3 in South Africa. Grade R is comparable to senior kindergarten in Ontario.
The project will bring together Canadian and South African scholars, artists and community partners to explore the interdisciplinary and transformative possibilities of education research that emerge through co-theorizing with Black ecologies.
A pilot to the collaboratory will take place in a closed two-day gathering in South Africa to guide set of research questions and co-design research methods.
Chelsi Ricketts is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Education. Her project, Mobilizing youth insights to promote body inclusivity in Canadian youth sport, examines how girls and gender-diverse youth perceive body diversity. It draws on the experiences of participants aged 12 to 18 who are current or former sport participants, with the goal of informing more body-inclusive sport environments.
The BRN IGNITE Grant will support the project’s next phase, translating youth insights into practical guidance for sport leaders, policy-makers and sport communities working toward more equitable and inclusive environments.
The work is part of a SSHRC Partnership Grant awarded to Professor Catherine Sabiston, that aims to reimagine youth sport through the lenses of race, social class, gender, body diversity, Indigeneity and disability.
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