Origins of My Work
I have been at the U of A since 2007, first as an Assistant Director/Research Associate at the Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth and Families (CUP), and then as a faculty member in the Department of Human Ecology, ALES, where I am a social policy scholar. Before I became an academic, I worked with disadvantaged populations in a range of positions: as a Support Worker for a home for homeless men (summers, 1985-1989); as a Probation Officer in two Northern First Nations communities (1990); and most notably as the Executive Director of Lurana Shelter, a shelter for abused women and children (1994-1999). After completing my PhD in 2005, I worked as the Senior Manager of Policy Research for the Alberta Ministry of Children’s Services where I co-chaired the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Social Research and Information Working Group with a federal government counterpart in Ottawa.
Selected Awards
2020. Great Supervisor Award. Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. University of Alberta.
2019. Inspirational Educator Award. Rhodes Trust. Oxford, England. Awarded to professors who have provided exceptional mentorship to Rhodes Scholars.
2019. Teacher of the Year. Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences. University of Alberta.
2013. Faculty Teaching Award. Faculty of ALES. Awarded to one faculty member per year for excellence in teaching.
2012. President’s Achievement Award. “Dare to Discover” – Learning, Discovery and Citizenship (staff category, team award). For contributions to Student Engagement in the Faculty of ALES as Co-Coordinator of ULead Leadership Program. University of Alberta.
2012. Teacher of the Year. Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences. University of Alberta.
2010. Teacher of the Year. Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences. University of Alberta.
2006. President’s Achievement Award. University of Alberta President's Achievement Award: “Dare to Discover ” (staff category, team award). Granted to the Community-University Partnership where I was an Assistant Director/Research Associate.
Focus of Scholarship
I lead the Gender, Family and Policy Research Initiative in the Department of Human Ecology. In all my research, I ask this broad question: under which circumstances, and to what extent, is the state responsible for the well-being of citizens? As a result, many of my research projects explore the relationship between individuals and the state, focusing particularly on the ways in which specific policies affect wellbeing, social equality, and access to resources for individuals and families. My current research interests focus on the impact of child care policy on family well-being and maternal employment. I also do international work, exploring the impacts of social policy on marginalized citizens in developing countries. My previous research on the gendered nature of welfare-to-work, the work-family integration of those in marginalized employment, and child care policy has been published in leading inter-disciplinary social science journals, including Critical Social Policy, Community, Work & Family, Journal of Family Issues, and Development Policy Review. I currently have funding from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council and the Worldwide University Network to explore barriers to women's employment.
In addition to my position in the Department of Human Ecology, I am also a Lougheed Adjunct Professor at the Peter Lougheed Leadership College at the University of Alberta.
Graduate Student Supervision
Natalie Schmitt, MSc (thesis). 2020-present. Women and Policy.
Semhar Berhe, MSc (course-based). 2020-present.
Laura Cadrain, MSc (thesis). 2019-present. Women and Policy.
Kareema Batal, MSc (thesis). 2018-present. Social Enterprise.
Julia Roy, MSc (thesis). Completed, 2020. Program development and evaluation for families of children with disability.
Laurel Sakaluk, PhD. Completed 2017. Work-family integration during the transition to parenthood: Longitudinal processes and ideological influences.
Rebecca Horne, MSc (thesis). Completed 2017 (Co-supervised with Matt Johnson). A Labour of Love? Male and Female Partners’ Emotion Work in Intimate Relationships.
Ropa Mamutse, MSc (course-based).Completed 2017. Aging out of the family. The experiences of youth aging out of youth services.
Vanessa Ostapchuk. MSc (course-based).Completed 2016. Canadian Provincial Child Care Subsidies and their “Fit” within the Lives of Working Poor Families.
Iryna Hurava MSc (thesis). Completed 2015. Institutional Child Care in Belarus.
Roxana Marin, MSc (course-based). Completed 2013. Cell phone use and parent-child relationships in families with adolescents.
Hannah Goa, MSc (thesis). Completed 2010. Outside the city walls: The construction of poverty in Alberta’s income and employment supports act.
Analysis of current policy issues faced by Canadian families and the examination of policies and programs affecting family well-being and relationships. Prerequisite: HECOL 300.
Winter Term 2021Independent study of a topic in human ecology planned by the student in consultation with the Instructor. Independent studies may be taken more than once for credit.
Fall Term 2020Enquiry into the nature, scope and object of human ecology knowledge; the distinct contributions of various modes of inquiry; and the relationship between ways of knowing and selected issues related to the acquisition of knowledge, such as ethics and research methods.
Fall Term 2020An examination of the elements of policies and policy issues that affect contemporary Canadian families. The elements of policies and policy issues studied include: their origins and underlying ideologies; their institutional frameworks and foundations; and their substance, nature, and impact on families. Prerequisite: HECOL 300. Not to be taken if credit received for HECOL 440.
Winter Term 2021This course will explore complex local and global wicked problems that require interdisciplinary leadership solutions. Students will explore novel, ecological approaches to leadership to develop innovation strategies that contribute toward solving these complex problems. Pre- or corequisite: INT D 301. Counts toward the Certificate in Interdisciplinary Leadership Studies offered by the School of Business in collaboration with the Peter Lougheed Leadership College. [Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences]
Winter Term 20212018 - 2018
Adeline Froehlich and Ewald Breitkreuz were born in a German settlement in Volhynia, Poland. In 1915, when Germany invaded Poland, the Russian government required German-speaking citizens of Volhynia to leave their homes. The vast majority of them were sent to Siberia in freight trains. The first part of this film documents the journeys of Adeline and Ewald during this forced migration. The second part of the film discusses the day-to-day life of Adeline and Ewald and their nine children in Onoway, Alberta, as German-speaking immigrants from 1935 onwards.