Research is thriving at Mount Royal University, and these scholars and their discoveries, recently featured during MRU's Research and Scholarship Days, are on the cutting edge.
Why don't more men take parental leave? Rachael Pettigrew, PhD (Business)
A new five to eight weeks of federal parental leave for the "other parent" (most often dads) came into effect in March. Pettigrew's research explores employer culture and policies that help employees' manage their work-family responsibilities. She has been investigating parental leave use by male employees and the possible reasons preventing men from taking leave, such as stigma and managerial attitudes, which Pettigrew says is a social justice issue.
"The more we can encourage men to use leave, the more we'll see all sorts of benefits like marital satisfaction and child engagement," says Pettigrew. "It will also balance the stigma, due to leave taking, that women face right now."
While almost 30 per cent of women are currently out-earning their partners, says Pettigrew, 90 per cent of leave-takers are still women. Fatherhood is virtually invisible in the workplace she says, leaving an imbalance for fathers and mothers, but this should not be seen as strictly a male-centered issue.
As baby-boomers retire, employers will need to attract employees with inclusive policies that include things like parental leave for men. Pettigrew is currently working with local industry to ensure workplace policies encourage diversity in the workplace.
Alberta elections online: Digital Retail Politics and Grassroots Growth, 2006 to 2016: Peter Ryan, PhD (Business and Communication Studies)
Use of social media tools during Alberta elections has grown from a few hundred users to hundreds of thousands between 2006 to 2016. Politicians now must sell an image and platform online using "Digital Retail Politics" strategies that align with their authentic self in order to gain and maintain electoral support. This research also looks at the latest innovations for political campaigns in the current 2019 Alberta election. Ryan is a featured contributor to Orange Chinook, a new book outlining the reasons behind the NDP's victory in the 2015 provincial election and the province's shifting political culture.
The Drunkard, Opened, Dissected and Anatomized: Historical Perspectives on Intoxication and Addiction: David Clemis, PhD (History)
The understanding of intoxication and addiction in Western law, medicine and popular culture has evolved through history. Clemis's research moves from ancient and medieval understandings of addiction to "the medical revolution" of the seventeenth century, which prompted the debates over the nature of addiction and the cognitive capacity and agency of drunken people. Key is the question of whether addiction is better understood as a moral failing, a medical condition or a socialized form of behaviour or varying combinations of these factors. Recent neuroscientific theories of addiction, in some ways, more closely resemble ancient and medieval thought than the more modern thinking about addiction.
Students learn through virtual reality, and their cellphones: Felix Nwaishi, PhD (Science and Technology)
This innovative teaching approach is being developed by MRU Environmental Science Faculty members to advance experiential learning concepts that will fully immerse the students in a natural environment through virtual reality, using their cellphones, which are often seen as a source of distraction in a traditional classroom. Field work takes place in the summer when students are not in class. Delivering experiential learning through virtual reality can address this gap across most science disciplines.
Read more about research at Mount Royal University, and Research and Scholarship Lightning Talks.
