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The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is investing a total of $5 million in two multi-university Major Collaborative Research Initiatives, both involving UVic.
One of the projects is a five-year initiative to develop models for aboriginal governance that incorporate traditional knowledge and modern scholarship. UVic faculty involved in this project include Jeremy Webber (law), Dr. Avigail Eisenberg (political science), Dr. Michael Asch (anthropology) and John Borrows (law).
The UVic team will play a major role in the project, with Webber and Borrows on the steering committee and Webber heading up a research section.
“This should be a remarkable project because it simultaneously seeks to explore self-government from both an aboriginal and non-aboriginal perspective, bringing the two into dialogue,” explains Webber.
Other members of the research team include 35 indigenous and non-indigenous researchers from 20 different universities across Canada, as well as numerous aboriginal groups.
The second major SSHRC-funded project involves the study of democratic governance and ethnic diversity. UVic’s Dr. James Tully (political science) is a member of the advisory committee and Avigail Eisenberg is one of 12 co-investigators working with an international team made up of members from Europe, Asia and Africa and a number of partner organizations. They’ll explore the social and political complexities of multi-ethnic societies and look for democratic ways to accommodate linguistic and cultural diversity.
Eisenberg says she is inspired by the prospect of working with “the best and brightest in the world” and “thinking in a coordinated way about how to advance our understanding of democracy from the context of ethnic diversity and conflict.”
The Ethnicity and Democratic Governance Project seeks to develop strategies for improving national and global responses to ethnic conflict and reform institutions in ways that address political instability and potentially violent situations.
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