Social Work PhD student Maddie Brockbank makes finals of SSHRC Storytellers Challenge

Maddie Brockbank, Vanier scholar and PhD student in Social Work, has made the final of the 2025 Storytellers Challenge.

The challenge, organized by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), has scholars from across Canada communicate their research in 300 words or three minutes.

Brockbank’s research is titled ‘From Harm to Healing: Co-Designing a Gender-Based and Sexual Violence Prevention Framework for and with Men’.

Brockbank was thrilled to make it to the final alongside other talented researchers.

“It was such a welcome surprise,” she said. “It’s an honour to be featured alongside such brilliant scholars as a finalist. I think it’s a reflection of the important work happening across the social sciences and humanities in Canada.”

In broad terms, it examines the impact that men could have on designing and influencing gender-based and sexual violence (GBSV) prevention initiatives.

This research is importance, said Brockbank, because it brings men into the conversation.

“Prevention has been identified as a foundational pillar in Canada’s Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence,” she said. “Men are such an important part of this conversation, and we need to design programs that attend to their unique positions in order to bolster and sustain their participation in anti-violence efforts.

“I also feel passionately about applying an anti-carceral feminist lens to this issue to reframe accountability for ending gender-based violence as a community endeavour. I hope that my project contributes even a bit to the wealth of significant scholarship in anti-carceral studies and men’s engagement that informs my work.”

To communicate this research, Brockbank created an infographic roadmap, which will form the basis of her three-minute presentation at the Storytellers Challenge final.

Brockbank was attracted to the competition as a way of honing her creative skills, which is an important part of communicating research findings.

“I’ve never considered myself to be a particularly creative person, so I wanted to challenge myself to communicate my research in a concise and accessible way,” she said.

“I am so proud of what we co-designed as a research team and thankful for the incredible engagement from my study participants that made this project possible. This competition expands the potential reach of our framework to influence anti-violence work with men across the country.”

The final will take place in Fredericton at the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada (SWCC) conference on Friday, June 13, 2025, in Fredericton, New Brunswick.