Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) Expression of Interest
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST DESCRIPTION:
Royal Roads University (RRU) invites expressions of interest from those wishing to develop a Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) application.
ROYAL ROADS UNIVERSITY LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Royal Roads University is located on the traditional lands of the Lekwungen-speaking Peoples, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. This land has been part of the fabric of the life of Indigenous communities long before Hatley Castle was built, and it will be long into the future. It is with gratitude that we now learn and work here, where the past, present and future of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, faculty and staff come together.
CANADA POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH AWARD (CPRA) PROGRAM
The Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) program recognizes and supports the next generation of outstanding innovators, knowledge workers, creative thinkers and researchers at a pivotal time in their careers. Please see the Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) program website for more information.
CPRA award amounts of $70,000 (taxable income) per year for 2 years (non-renewable) are used to fund a postdoctoral researcher position at the university and are subject to MERCs (mandatory employment related costs).
Positions are conditional upon approval of the nomination by the funder.
The Tri-Agency is in the process of transitioning to a harmonized postdoctoral research award. In the meantime, selected candidates will choose the agency to apply to which best represents their research area – i.e. CIHR, SSHRC, and NSERC. See below for a list of opportunities by agency. Only SSHRC opportunities are available at this time.
RRU SEEKS EXPRESSIONS OF INTERERST SPECIFIC TO THE FOLLOWING RESEARCH AREAS:
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
Juana Du. Dr. Juana Du’s research encompasses cultural intelligence, the cross-cultural adaptation of business professionals, global virtual and hybrid teams, knowledge transfer and management, and digital innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Employing an empirical research approach, her recent work inquiries into human-AI interactions (HAII) within an international business context. Specifically, she examines the experiences of AI-assisted dialogue systems among sojourners, and their impact on individuals’ overseas experiences, cognitive abilities, multilingual competence, emotional engagement and social relationships.
Mahmood Fayazi. My research interests focus on disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, sustainable recovery, and community resilience, with particular attention to Indigenous-led and community-based approaches. I examine how vulnerability, governance, relocation, housing recovery, and nature-based solutions shape equitable adaptation to floods, wildfires, and hydrological hazards. My work emphasizes participatory and decolonizing methodologies, co-production of knowledge, integration of Indigenous and scientific knowledge systems, and policy-relevant strategies for strengthening disaster preparedness, recovery, and long-term resilience.
Jaigris Hodson. Project 1: This postdoctoral research investigates the resurgence of hegemonic and hypermasculinity in digital spaces through a comparative analysis of two regional contexts—one in the Global North, and one in the Global South. It examines how masculinities are constructed, sustained, and radicalized online, with particular attention to the role of misinformation, political polarization, and platform infrastructure. This project builds on existing work in gender and media studies to frame misogynist extremism as both a digital and cultural phenomenon that must be situated within longer histories of patriarchal backlash and institutionalized gender inequality. The study conceptualizes this backlash not simply as an isolated or localized phenomenon, but as a transnational one with shared narratives, aesthetics, and algorithmic amplification.
Project 2: Alberta’s passage of Bill 13 (“Peterson law”) in 2025 and Pierre Poilievre’s 2026 appearance on Joe Rogan signalled the institutional uptake of manosphere ideology in Canadian politics. These cases are part of a polarized landscape of competing visions of masculinity, spanning provincial gender-restrictive laws and federal men’s health initiatives that frame the manosphere as a social risk. This project examines how “redpill” narratives shape political agendas and their implications for democratic norms and platform governance.
Jaigris Hodson & Sarah Wolfe. This study investigates how sustained exposure to death content on social media platforms like TikTok reshapes the relationship between mortality salience and political engagement. Drawing on Terror Management Theory and platform studies, it asks whether chronic, platform-mediated death awareness produces the worldview defence responses predicted by classical TMT literature or instead generates affective saturation, political disengagement, and moral paralysis.
Frances Jorgensen. My research, funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant, focuses on workplace incivility interventions and how and why they are perceived as (in)effective by those who implement them and those they are intended to benefit. To advance the research, I am interested in supporting a postdoctoral researcher with an interest in change management, and how organizational interventions can be implemented according to a change management strategy.
Julie MacArthur. I invite expressions of interest from postdoctoral researchers whose work connects to economic democratization, regenerative infrastructures, post-growth political economy, or polycentric governance. My research examines how democratic community participation can transform incumbent infrastructure regimes internationally. Questions include:
- How are ownership and governance responsibilities rearranged across public, community, Indigenous, and private actors in essential infrastructure systems — and who drives these shifts?
- What role does scale play in infrastructure democratization; and how do local innovations diffuse (or stall) across provincial, national, and transnational levels?
- What tradeoffs emerge between democratic participation, technical optimization, and ecological goals in infrastructure governance?
Candidates with backgrounds in political economy, environmental governance, sustainability transitions, or related fields are encouraged to reach out.
Kathleen Manion & Elizabeth Childs. We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to explore what it means to build early childhood systems that are rights-respecting, nature-connected, and grounded in the relational and holistic needs of young children. Drawing on Indigenous frameworks and participatory methodologies that centre children's voices and lived experiences, this research investigates the intersection of policy, practice, and place-based learning for young children and early childhood educators. Findings will contribute evidence to support systems that nurture self-actualization, foster community belonging, and remove barriers to thriving.
Robert Newell & Brian White. Drs. Robert Newell and Brian White are seeking a postdoctoral researcher interested in studying different approaches to local food system development. The research will use a community-based approach, working with local government and community members to identify and explore the sustainability implications of developing food systems in different ways. The research will employ knowledge and theory in food systems, local planning, and sustainability, and it will involve multiple research methods (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, spatial analysis).
Tracy Smith-Carrier. Project 1: Canada’s National Housing Strategy Act promotes a rights-based policy approach, however a reliance on supply-side solutions threatens to perpetuate the housing precarity of vulnerable populations. This research asks: how do multilevel housing policies in British Columbia construct ideas about deservingness through implicit assumptions about income, ability, age, and family structure? Using a modified systematic review methodology, the study identifies policy misalignment and gaps in how policy and regulatory approaches may be worsening housing deprivation today.
Project 2: Canadian social assistance (SA) caseloads have been trending upwards post-pandemic. Disability SA provisions tend to be province- and territorial-wide, ignoring differences in the cost-of-living and regionally sensitive poverty lines. The research asks: how do disability-related SA participants in Canada understand the equity and adequacy of their respective programs? Applying a mixed methods design involving administrative data and qualitative interviews, this research aims to provide policy recommendations on how to improve disability-related SA programming across Canada.
Phillip Vannini. The proposed project aims to develop ethnographic insight on Air Canada’s passengers’ motives, experiences and practices in order to generate ethnographic insight into Canadians’ aeromobilities, how those aeromobilities reflect and sustain Canadian social and economic life, and the evolving aerial role of Air Canada in a mobile world. By developing a mobile and muti-site ethnographic approach, the proposed project will develop key insights into why (i.e. their motives) and how (i.e. their experiences and practices) passengers fly with Air Canada both domestically and internationally.
Sarah Wolfe. This postdoctoral research opportunity will support a new, integrated, five-project program focused on how emotions shape community responses to land-use change, climate adaptation, and landscape planning on southern Vancouver Island. The postdoctoral researcher (PDR) will have a 50:50 time split: 50% their own research (climate, disasters, population adaptation or mitigation in BC, preferably Vancouver Island, or other Canadian islands), and 50% coordinating multi-project research design, ethics, data management, student coordination, comparative analysis, and knowledge mobilization. Within an interdisciplinary team, the PDR will help translate findings into actionable strategies for communities and academic colleagues.
