Associate Professor Christina Han appointed inaugural director of Laurier Hub for Community Solutions

Sept. 7, 2022

Christina Han, a historian with a track record of community engaged research at Laurier’s Brantford campus, has been appointed the first-ever director of the Laurier Hub for Community Solutions (LHCS). Established in spring of 2022, the LHCS provides a matchmaking service, connecting community partners with the insights, innovative thinking and research skills of Laurier’s faculty and students. 

In March 2022, the City of Brantford signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the university as the Hub’s first official partner, but the goal is to engage a variety of organizations who could benefit from community research partnerships. 

An associate professor of History at Laurier’s Brantford campus, Han is a historian and curator of East Asian culture and art, a curatorial consultant and research associate at the Royal Ontario Museum, and has worked as the guest curator for the museum’s Korea Gallery. She has been involved in deep-mapping projects on the history of Brantford’s immigrant communities. Han currently serves as the President of the Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre.

“As someone who was part of the early visioning and prototyping of the Hub, I recognize how important this initiative is for Laurier Brantford and deeply appreciate all of the hard work that many people have put in to bring us where we are today,” Han said. 

“I have been at the forefront of community engaged research and projective initiatives in Brantford over the past several years, and I believe this role will provide me with an opportunity to give back to both Laurier and the Brantford community by helping to build an innovative, high-impact and sustainable model of collaboration which can also be implemented in Laurier’s other campus communities. I will do my very best to help the LHCS become a creative engine of Laurier.”  

Collaborating with Han on the LHCS will be an advisory committee including Laurier faculty members James Popham, Abby Goodrum and Melody Morton Ninomiya, City of Brantford representative Marlene Miranda, an additional community appointee and a Laurier research facilitator. The LHCS will also establish a community of practice that will bring together experts from across the university’s faculties and locations. 

“Laurier has made significant contributions to community research and the Laurier Hub for Community Solutions is the natural evolution of programs like CityStudio, Ashoka, Community Changemakers, and other formal and informal partnership initiatives that have seen our faculty and students provide value to our community partners,” said Jonathan Newman, vice-president: research. “With 23 research centres and a presence in Brantford, Waterloo, Kitchener, the Northwest Territories, Milton and their surrounding areas, Laurier has considerable expertise for community partners to tap into as they work through some of the most compelling research questions and societal challenges of our day.”