SSHRC reveals finalists for the 2025 Storytellers Challenge

March 14, 2025

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is proud to announce the 2025 Storytellers Challenge finalists, which showcase some of Canada’s top research communicators and emerging scholars.

The annual challenge highlights the exceptional ability of Canadian postsecondary students to effectively communicate the myriad of positive impacts that social sciences and humanities research can have on society.

Hailing from all across Canada, these talented finalists have demonstrated a remarkable capacity to translate complex research into compelling stories—in up to 300 words or three minutes—that matter to Canadians and have a broad impact. The successful submissions cover a wide range of topics, from examining artificial intelligence enabled methods in the intensive care unit; and assessing mentors’ training needs to develop and evaluate culturally responsive Indigenous mentorship training modules; to examining the resilience of correctional workers in Canada’s institutional and community correctional systems.

The finalists will each receive $3,000 (or $1,500 in the case of a collaborative submission) and will advance to Phase 2 of the challenge, where they will present their research story at the Storytellers Showcase. The showcase will be held at the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada (SWCC) conference on Friday, June 13, 2025, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Each finalist will be judged based on their live storytelling skills, and the final winners will receive an additional $1,000.

2025 Storytellers Challenge finalists:

• Sarah Abouali, University of Calgary
• Noor Ajel, Queen’s University
• Elaine J. Atay, University of Calgary
• Lucy Bilson, University of Guelph
• Maddie Brockbank, McMaster University
• Shaelyn Carr, University of Regina
• Kaylen Gill, The University of British Columbia
• Baptiste Henry, Polytechnique Montréal
• Tarek Khalil, University of Ottawa
• Kiana Kishiyama, McGill University
• Mélanie Letendre Jauniaux, Bishop’s University
• Sarah Nassar, Queen’s University
• Casey Oliver, Lakehead University
• Jaweria Qaiser, University of Toronto
• Rachel Rozanski, Concordia University
• Natasha Serrao, University of Waterloo
• Ghazale Shoghaliniri and Adora Wang, University of Ottawa
• Micheal P. Taylor, Memorial University
• Jeffrey To, McGill University
• Varsha Vasudevan, Western University

Visit the 2025 Storytellers Gallery to view this year’s finalists’ submissions.

For more information, contact:

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Media relations
medias@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca

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