Western Scholar Expands Latin American Research Collaboration with Global Affairs Grant
A Western scholar is deepening international research collaborations through a faculty mobility program aimed at strengthening academic ties in Latin America.
Abe Oudshoorn, PhD’11, associate dean (research) in the Faculty of Health Sciences, professor in the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing and the Arthur Labatt Family Chair in Nursing Leadership in Health Equity, will travel to Santiago, Chile, later this year for a five-week visiting scholar appointment at the University of Alberto Hurtado. His work will focus on Chile’s innovative, street-level responses to homelessness, including grassroots primary health care delivery and a pioneering hepatitis C treatment initiative that serves over 400 unhoused individuals.
The visit is supported by a newly awarded grant from Global Affairs Canada and will allow Oudshoorn, also managing editor of the International Journal on Homelessness, to return to Chile to build on connections established earlier this year at the university, which hosted the second International Conference on Homelessness in January. The conference welcomed more than 350 participants from around the world.
“I was very inspired by the work being done in Chile and the outcomes they’re seeing. This upcoming visit will be an opportunity to immerse myself in their scholarship, to share insights from our work in Canada, and to continue learning from their remarkable efforts to address a complex social issue,” said Oudshoorn, a nurse whose research has evolved from health care delivery at the individual level to examining structural causes of homelessness and shaping policy solutions.
During the visit, Oudshoorn will also work with Chilean colleagues on co-developing international grant proposals and strengthening long-term research partnerships.
“These programs in Chile offer valuable insights that could inform policy and practice here in Canada,” he said. “When we collaborate internationally, we can learn from places that are achieving better outcomes and use that evidence to advocate for change at home.”
The Faculty Mobility for Partnership Building Program (FMPBP), offered by Global Affairs Canada, provides opportunities for Canadian faculty to do short-term research and teach in Latin America and the Caribbean and to by advance institutional partnerships in the areas of research, student mobility, joint programming, and capacity building. Since 2020, six Western faculty members have received this grant to support faculty mobility activities in Chile, Argentina, Peru and Ecuador.
Noting the challenge of securing funding for international research, Oudshoorn said he appreciated the straightforward application process for the FMPB, coordinated through Western International.
“The flexibility is what stood out,” he said. “I was able to align this opportunity with my research goals, my teaching responsibilities, and my timeline.”
