York University researcher Professor Carla Lipsig-Mummé, from the Department of Social Science in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York Unviersity, is shortlisted for the prestigious Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Impact Award in the Partnership category.
Canada’s most distinguished award for partnership-based research in the social sciences and humanities, SSHRC selected Professor Lipsig-Mummé as one of three finalists. The award recognizes outstanding accomplishment in advancing research, research training and knowledge mobilization, and developing a new partnership approach to research.
“York is delighted that Professor Carla Lipsig-Mummé was shortlisted for the SSHRC Impact Award in the Partnership category,” said Vice-President Research and Innovation Robert Haché. “She is an outstanding research leader in labour and organizing, work and young workers, as well as climate change and the social impact of global warming, and author of more than 200 works.”
The award is granted to a partnership that, through sharing resources and intellectual leadership, has had a proven impact and influence within and beyond the social sciences and humanities research community.
Lipsig-Mummé, who teaches work and labour studies, has spent the past two decades spearheading the Work & Climate Change (WCC) network partnership, which has grown from five partners and eight researchers in the 1990s to 52 partners today. She has built a robust community-university research partnership where the world of work and workers play a central role in the social and political struggle to slow climate change.
“Being nominated by York in recognition of the impact that my research on work and climate change has had both inside and outside of the academy is a huge honour and I am absolutely thrilled to have been shortlisted by SSHRC,” said Lipsig-Mummé.
The core questions the WCC investigates include how the world of work, which is a major producer of greenhouse gases that cause climate change, can increasingly and effectively contribute to the struggle to slow climate change and, within this context, the role that social science can play in relation to other sciences.
“I’m passionate about the WCC’s work,” said Lipsig-Mummé. “Our unique international team, which includes academic researchers, trade unionists, engineers, architects, health workers, policy makers, student groups and environmental advocacy groups, has produced research on green initiatives in the workplace, and collaboratively developed programs for green education and training, and initiated the creation and implementation of green plans.”
Lipsig-Mummé’s work and climate change research has been supported by four SSHRC-funded projects since 2008. The projects include: “What do we know? The implications of global climate change for Canadian employment and work,” “Work in a Warming World,” “Canada’s Work World and the Challenge of Climate Change: Engaging the Community” and “Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Change: Canada in International Perspective.”
The winners in each Impact Award category – as well as the gold medal recipient – will be presented with their awards at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Sept. 15.