Communicating research for a better life

Two University of Victoria graduate students have been rewarded for their creative use of video storytelling to share the impacts of their academic research.

Genevieve von Petzinger and Bernadette Perry are among 25 winners of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) video contest Research for a Better Life: The Storytellers Challenge, involving universities across Canada.

Bernadette Perry—a linguist and master’s student in the French language, literature and culture program—has created a mobile app that allows more French-language learning to happen outside the classroom. Explorez bridges the gap between education and gaming through quest-based learning and augmented reality. Perry’s video describes the GPS technology that turns the UVic campus into a virtual francophone world as a learning aid for first year French students. Watch the video here.

Genevieve von Petzinger’s research goes all the way back to the beginnings of human civilization. With video camera in hand, the PhD anthropology student and TED Senior Fellow has spent years crawling through caves of western Europe, speculating on what the ice age drawings of ancient people might tell us about some of our biggest questions: What does it mean to be human and why is it so important to us that we share our ideas with other people? Watch the video here.

SSHRC launched the second annual Storytellers Challenge last November, asking postsecondary students to demonstrate—in three minutes or 300 words—how a SSHRC-funded research project at their institution is making a difference in the lives of Canadians.

The top 25 receive a prize of $3,000, and trip to the Congress 2014 of the Humanities and Social Sciences at Brock University. They will also compete in the Storytellers Showcase and the final five will be featured at SSHRC’s 2014 Impact Awards ceremony in Ottawa this fall.

The YouTube playlist of the Top 25 can be found here.

SSHRC release can be found here.

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