The University of Victoria is situated on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ Nations. Click here to learn more.
In The News
Graduate Student Supervision
If you are interested in applying to work with Heather in the HEC Lab, 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 lək̓ʷəŋən Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ territories at the University of Victoria where she holds an Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health.
Video
The Spirit of the Lakes
The Spirit of the Lakes project team members Lydia Johnson, Sam Mishos, and Heather Castleden gave a virtual presentation at the Society for Freshwater Sciences conference in May 2021. The presentation gives some background on the research, as well as the project objectives, which focus on developing and piloting a partnership protocol for research taking place in Grand Council Treaty #3 Anishinaabe territories.
Logo credit: Grand Council Treaty 3
Research for the HEC of it!
The HEC Lab at the University of Victoria is situated on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ Nations, whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day. The lab 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-Eye 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 HEC Lab is also co-located at Queen’s University on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe Peoples. Only the HEC Lab at UVic will be accepting new students in 2021-2022
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.
Podcast
Getting Personal
WELCOME TO ‘GETTING PERSONAL’! Sam, Saskia, Kiera, and Erica are four graduate students currently doing research in the areas of geography, environmental studies, and health promotion at Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ontario.
As part of Dr Heather Castleden’s ‘Critical Modes of Inquiry’ graduate course at Queen’s, they created ‘Getting Personal’ as a socially distant opportunity to converse with one another about positionality and reflexivity in the context of their own research projects.
With a different podcaster at the focal point for each episode, they share how their personal identities, backgrounds, and experiences have shaped who they are and how these personal subjectivities make their way into their research.
You can read more about “Getting Personal” here: https://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2021-03-01/news/new-podcast-highlights-graduate-student-research/ and you can listen to the podcast here: https://soundcloud.com/user-410213733