My scholarship is interdisciplinary
and action-oriented. 

All research projects that I lead are collaborative and draw on
creative methods for data generation.

Current Projects — Dr. Natalia Balyasnikova

Current Projects

Infodemic / Digital Literacy
Co-I · SSHRC PEG · Immigrant seniors navigating COVID-19 misinformation online.
2021
Infodemic
SSHRC PEG
StoryStitch
PI · New Horizons · Virtual storytelling to reduce social isolation in older adults.
2021
StoryStitch
New Horizons
PhoneMe App
PI · SSHRC NFRF · Digital poetry platform for community literacy.
2022
PhoneMe App
SSHRC NFRF
Creativity in Later Life
PI · York R&D · Examining creativity as a pedagogical resource in later life.
2022
Creativity in Later Life
York R&D
Age & Language Stereotypes
PI · SSHRC Explore · How ageist and linguicist stereotypes shape older immigrants' learning.
2024
Age & Language Stereotypes
SSHRC Explore
Creative Programming & Adult Literacy
PI · SSHRC PEG · Strengths-based creative framework for community literacy.
2025
Community Literacy
SSHRC PEG
Theatre for Living
PI · York TLDG · Drama as pedagogical praxis in adult education classrooms.
2025
Theatre for Living
York TLDG
Poetry Learning in Later Life
PI · York R&D · Poetry as grassroots learning practice for older adults.
2025
Poetry Learning
York R&D
Community is method
Every project is built with communities, not about them. Participants are co-researchers, co-designers, and knowledge holders.
Learning as resistance
Each project starts from the assumption that older adults — especially immigrants — are active agents who learn and resist systems not built for them.
Art as inquiry
Storytelling, poetry, drama, and digital creativity are not add-ons — they are the research methods. Every project uses creative work to generate knowledge.

Reimagining Practice

SSHRC PEG
SSHRC Partnership Engagement Grant · 2025
Creative Programming as Strengths-Based Adult Literacy
A community-based research project examining how creative programming — storytelling, drama, poetry — can function as a strengths-based framework for adult literacy development, centring learner assets rather than deficits.
York TLDG
York Teaching-Learning Development Grant · 2025
Theatre for Living as Classroom Praxis
Explores Theatre of the Oppressed and related dramatic methodologies as pedagogical tools in adult education classrooms — examining how embodied, participatory drama reshapes power and learning.
York R&D
York Minor R&D Grant · 2025
Poetry Learning in Later Life
A grassroots community inquiry into poetry as a learning practice for older adults — documenting how poetic engagement builds language, identity, and community connection outside formal institutional settings.
York R&D
York Minor R&D Grant · 2022
Creativity in Later Life
Examines creativity as a pedagogical and developmental resource in later life — asking what creative engagement makes possible for older adults, and what educational programs need to do differently to support it.

Online Spaces

SSHRC NFRF
SSHRC New Frontiers in Research Fund · 2022
PhoneMe App: Innovative Approaches to Community Literacy
A digital poetry platform that invites people to create, record, and share spoken word poems inspired by public places — spanning community organizations, schools, and teacher education programs across Canada.
New Horizons
New Horizons for Seniors Program · 2021
StoryStitch: Virtual Storytelling to Reduce Social Isolation
A virtual storytelling initiative designed to reduce social isolation and loneliness among older adults — using collaborative digital storytelling as a way of building connection, meaning, and community across distances.
SSHRC PEG
SSHRC Partnership Engagement Grant · 2021 · Co-Investigator
Immigrant Seniors' Digital Literacy in the COVID-19 Infodemic
Examines how older immigrant adults navigate COVID-19 misinformation online — who they trust, what barriers they face, and what community-based digital literacy support actually works.

Learning & Advocacy

SSHRC Explore
SSHRC Explore Grant · 2024
Age and Language-Based Stereotypes in Older Immigrants' Learning
Investigates how ageist and linguicist stereotypes shape older immigrants' language learning experiences — and what happens to learner agency, identity, and participation when those stereotypes are named, challenged, and refused.

Artem Research Collective

I am a founding member of Artem Research Collective, where we develop an innovative research approach -- Collaborative Creative Inquiry. Our purpose is to stimulate empirical work that utilizes arts-based research, creativity, and collaboration to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable communities in society. As a group, we seek to develop holistic perspectives by integrating different theoretical and empirical disciplinary viewpoints, thereby creating new frameworks that promote strong and resilient communities of research practice. 

Read about our work here.

Memberships

Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education

The Canadian Association on Gerontology

The Canadian Society for the Study of Education

The British Society of Gerontology 

Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée 

International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication

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