Dara Culhane Awarded Amundsen Fellowship

When most of us think about what it means to conduct research, we imagine interviews, statistics and adherence to a prescribed methodology.

While Dr. Dara Culhane understands the value in such a system, she believes there is often an element missing: a complicated, human one.

“There’s a convention in the European arts and social sciences to put aside feelings and experiences” says Culhane. “If ethnography is the study of social relations, how do we study [these] relations if we limit our questions in this way?" 

Culhane was recently awarded the Amundsen Fellowship by the SFU Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines (ISTLD). The fellowship is a one-year term that supports faculty members conducting research on teaching and learning, and will allow Culhane to continue to pursue her passion for what she calls “embodied, multisensorial methodology.”

Along with her colleagues – Sarah Louise Turner, Simone Rapisarda, and Cristina Moretti – Culhane will be creating an interactive website that acts as a resource for teachers and researchers to adapt their work to include a more holistic approach. The website will be launched in late 2021.

Congratulations, Dara!