In The News
Graduate Student Supervision
If you are interested in applying to work with Heather in the HEC Lab at Queen’s University, we encourage you to email Heather with a statement of interest, an up to date copy of your CV, a copy of your unofficial transcripts, as well as an exceptional piece of writing you would like to share.
Dr. Heather Castleden
Dr Heather Castleden is a (white) settler guest and scholar on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee territory at Queen’s University where she is a Canada Research Chair in Reconciling Relations for Health, Environments and Communities.
Research for the HEC of it!
The Health, Environments, and Communities Research Lab, situated on the unceded traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe Peoples at Queen’s University, is a qualitative research lab that focuses on producing justice-oriented research that contributes to pathways of social, environmental, and health equity. With a specific focus on Indigenous health and well-being, two-eyed seeing, community-based participatory research, and digital methods, the HEC Lab is a dynamic space where highly qualified personnel are trained and mentored to produce first class research.


The Lab
The HEC Lab focuses on reconciliatory, respectful, reciprocal, and responsible community-based participatory research. The Lab is committed to equity-oriented projects that apply social, environmental, and health lenses, and our work comes together through intersections of cultures, places, power/resistance, and relational ethics using innovative, decolonizing research methodologies. The HEC lab is equipped with a wide range of field equipment (audio/video recording, photovoice, and digital story technologies), qualitative data analysis and transcription software, as well as common and individual internet-connected computer work stations. The HEC Lab strives to cultivate the next generation of critically-engaged scholars by providing significant and meaningful research training opportunities for highly qualified personnel.