THE HEC Lab, established in 2009, is committed to participatory, decolonial, anti-colonial, and critical research. We undertake environment, health, social, and governance projects that are equity- and justice-oriented, community-partnered and community-led, and embrace relational ethics from idea and design to interpretation and knowledge mobilization. Dr Heather Castleden is the Research Director of the HEC Lab. You can reach Dr. Castleden here.
Our Research!!!
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.
NEW Archipelagos of Indigenous-led Resurgence for Planetary Health
The aim of our Indigenous-led health project is to develop globally impactful research that demonstrates how place-based evidence for Indigenous-led resurgence for planetary health can be synergized across “Island” sites to create an “Archipelago” of transformative change.
Dr. Heather Castleden
@H_Castleden
Dr. Heather Castleden is a white settler scholar at the University of Victoria where she is a Full Professor and holds the Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health.
Graduate 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.
The Lab
The HEC Lab is always looking to recruit prospective graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, undergraduate honours students, and volunteers. As a member of the HEC Lab, you will have the opportunity to work and collaborate with a cadre of peers with research interests just like yours. This includes participating in HEC Lab meetings that focus on building academic and professional skills, such as conference presentations, grant writing workshops, developing research projects, and collectively working to contribute to other projects going on in the Lab to ensure all of our outputs are of exceptional quality.
Profiles
View the profiles of the students in the HEC Lab.
Publications
View publications of the HEC Lab
News & Updates
- HEC Lab is going coastalAs of July 1, 2021, the HEC Lab is going coastal – to the west coast – to the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day where the University of Victoria is situated.
- With so much at risk, we couldn’t just wait for help’: Indigenous communities and COVID-19‘Heather Castleden just published an OpEd in the Globe and Mail with colleagues, Chantelle Richmond and Chelsea Gabel, entitled ‘With so much at risk, we couldn’t just wait for help’: Indigenous communities and COVID-19 Click here to view the article on the Globe & Mail website.
Current Projects
Catalyzing Intersectoral Collaborations on the Intersectional Public Health Impacts of Climate Displacement: Insights from British Columbia
The Living Lab Indigenous Land Stewardship & Educational Resurgence Project
Archipelagos of Indigenous-led Resurgence for Planetary Health
Intersectional Perspectives on Climate Change and Public Health
Spirit of the Lakes
Relational Accountability
Making Space For Ceremony
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.
Digital Stories
Digital storytelling is a tool in research and teaching that is showing promise in terms of positive (i.e. effective) social change, while embodying key tenets of ethical praxis. Digital stories are essentially short multi-media film vignettes that draw upon still frame images, video, audio, music, and a pre-recorded narrative to tell a personal or collective story about a particular topic.
Contact
The HEC Lab is always looking to recruit prospective graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, undergraduate honours students, and volunteers. As a member of the HEC Lab, you will have the opportunity to work and collaborate with a cadre of peers with research interests just like yours. This includes participating in HEC Lab meetings that focus on building academic and professional skills, such as conference presentations, grant writing workshops, developing research projects, and collectively working to contribute to other projects going on in the Lab to ensure all of our outputs are of exceptional quality.
If working with a team of highly driven academic peers in an environment that fosters skill development and team building in the context of collaborative research, please connect with us! We are seeking students interested in:
- Community-based participatory research
- Indigenous renewable energy in Canada
- Environmental racism and social justice
- Critical, participatory, and Indigenous methodologies
- Two-Eyed seeing
- Indigenous health equity
- Treaty rights
- Modern treaty implementation
- Relational ethics
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