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SSHRC Grants fuel Western Music research
Abridged from an article by Lauren daSilva via Western News
Western University researchers earned a total of nearly $9.8 million in new Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grants supporting innovative research across disciplines. The July 21 funding announcement highlights more than $289 million in federal support for research projects and partnerships across Canada.
Nearly $6.5 million in SSHRC Insight Grants – supporting research excellence in the social sciences and humanities – was awarded to Western scholars, plus $3.3 million in Insight Development Grants, which foster research in its initial stages. Western attracted 46 Insight Development Grants across six faculties. The $6.5 million in Insight Grants, which represents a 72 per cent increase in funding to Western compared to 2025, will fund two- to five-year research projects into topics ranging from loneliness, democratic participation, international law, Canadian culture and feminist history.
Among the grants awarded from the most recent intake were three Western Music projects:
- Emily Ansari (Collaborators: Kristen Wallentinsen and Alyssa Cottle) - Music, Feminism, and Crafting: Ann Southam's Women's World ($115,340)
- Jonathan De Souza (Co-applicant: Mark Daley) - Analyzing ensemble music with dynamic social networks ($242,206)
- Aaron Hodgson (Co-applicant: Laura Benjamins; Collaborator: Wolfgang Lehman) - Quitting Music: Identities and Careers of Former Professional Musicians ($117,878)
We also celebrate a SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant awarded to adam patrick bell and co-applicant Nasim Niknafs (University of Toronto) for Disability Inclusion in Music Education: A Scoping Review ($29,977).
In addition, congratulations to Alberto Acquilino (supervised by adam patrick bell) on receiving a Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship) for Generative AI and Disability-Led Design for Inclusive Music Learning ($140,000).
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Emily Ansari's project "Music, Feminism, and Crafting: Ann Southam’s Women’s World" was recently highlighted in Western News as part of the most recent announcement:
For centuries, women’s work has been dismissed, minimized or labeled unserious. Yet women artists have continued to challenge convention and reshape culture. Western music history professor Ansari believes few Canadians embody that legacy more powerfully than composer Ann Southam.
Ansari’s project explores the life and legacy of the Toronto composer, whose contribution to Canadian culture remains relatively unknown despite her significant impact on the country’s musical landscape.
Southam found new ways to represent feminist ideas in her music. According to Ansari, she sought to imitate “women’s work” in her compositions. That includes repetitive tasks of domestic life – such as cooking, cleaning, spinning, embroidery and knitting – and the tasks associated with crafting.
“We all carry within us a masculine view on what great art is. Southam’s resistance is unique – she focused on crafts, for so long dismissed as trivial because they were women’s,” Ansari said.
Read the full article via Western News (by Lauren daSilva, July 27, 2026):