I am delighted to have been awarded a 2024-25 Grant from the Digital Citizen Contribution Program of Canadian Heritage, titled Queering Digital Tools Against Hate: Countering 2SLGBTQI Mis-/Disinformation with Community-Informed Digital Stories, Gamification, and Resources (PI, M. Boler; co-investigator Dr Mark Lipton University of Guelph; community partner Egale Canada), of $290,000. This project examines and develops digital tools to combat mis-/disinformation and online violence that targets 2SLGBTQI+ individuals (i.e., that cause harm and weaken 2SLGBTQI+ people’s rights and freedoms) and their allies (i.e., that undermine or prevent allyship by perpetuating myths). The project will develop an innovative multimedia storytelling tool that amplifies experiences of trans and gender joy and additional tool/s that gamify learning to identify and disarm mis- and dis-information targeting trans and gender issues, along with providing original and curated educational resources.
I have also received a $10,000 award from the Inlight Project at University of Toronto, in support of a major literature review regarding artificial intelligence anxiety. we seek to understand how the deluge of content affects student anxieties about what’s real, what to focus on, where to find it, within the context of generative artificial intelligence and its transformation of the landscape of information.
I am also collaborating on two other major research projects: a SSHRC Insight Grant entitled “Capturing care work: Making visible women’s emotional work in families through participatory video,” with PI Olga Smoliak, Professor at Guelph University; and a New Frontiers Research Project titled “Rebuilding Public Trust after COVID-19: Examining Public Health Measures and Their Impact on Disabled Persons” with PI and Professor Trudo Lemmons, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.