New SSHRC Explore Grant: The Lifecourse and the Lakeshore

We’re excited to share that a new research project has received funding through the SSHRC Explore - Standard Research and Research Creation Grant.

The project, titled “The Lifecourse and the Lakeshore: Place, Aging, and Wellbeing on Lake Ontario,” examines how Lake Ontario contributes to meaningful aging for older women. This research is the first of its kind to explicitly explore the intersections of aging, gender, and the waters and shoreline of Lake Ontario.

The study focuses on memory, belonging, resilience, and activism. It seeks to document older women’s lived experiences of Lake Ontario in later life, including the narratives, rituals, and everyday practices through which the lake anchors continuity, identity, and wellbeing.

The project also investigates the barriers and facilitators that shape engagement with the lakeshore. Lake Ontario is heavily urbanized and ecologically stressed. Industrial pollution, shoreline erosion, invasive species, and climate-linked effects present challenges to access and safety. At the same time, community networks, recreational programs, and forms of activism create pathways for connection and inclusion.

As bodies, environments, and social worlds change across the lifecourse, the research further examines disruptions and processes of adaptation. The study explores what happens when relationships with Lake Ontario are altered through physical changes, environmental degradation, or restricted waterfront access, and how older women adapt to or resist these disruptions.

Using an arts-based feminist participatory action research approach, the project centers older women’s voices and experiences. Through interviews, go-along methods, and creative practices such as cellphilming, participants will collaboratively explore the relational connections between bodies, water, place, and aging.

By foregrounding older women’s lived experiences, this research reframes Lake Ontario not simply as an ecosystem under stress, but as a meaningful social and cultural space where questions of aging, gender, and climate resilience converge.