Research

Sandy and research assistant put something into vials

The Re-VIU: Top 20 stories of 2024

December 17, 2024

From shellfish biotoxins, to 3,000-year-old beer, to conspicuous consumption research, Vancouver Island University experts had a busy year in the media. Here are the top stories of 2024! #1: When teasing goes too far What should you do when a joke hurts your feelings? VIU Psychology Professor Dr.... Read more


Sharon leans against a tree wearing headphones

Re-examining the toxic drug crisis through stories

December 10, 2024

Dr. Sharen Karsten and her team are taking a community-engaged approach to the research. We are excited to share that Dr. Sharen Karsten, a VIU Recreation and Tourism Management Professor, has just received a 2024 Reach award from Michael Smith Health Research BC. The Reach Program funds teams of... Read more


Lily Eggert and Dr. Alexandra Weissfloch look at a bottle of cleaning product, which is an amber colour, while in a VIU chemistry lab. Both wear lab coats.

Choosing eco-friendly boat cleaners just got easier thanks to VIU researcher’s product database

November 27, 2024

What products can you use to clean your boat that won’t harm the environment?  VIU researchers are giving consumers the answers with a database that breaks down which boat cleaning and maintenance products are eco-friendly and which ones contain potentially harmful ingredients. Dr. Alexandra... Read more


Headshot of Dr. Cheryl Krasnick Warsh

How advertising imagery reveals Canada’s tourism and transportation narratives

November 19, 2024

A trip to Hawaii sparked Dr. Cheryl Krasnick Warsh’s research journey Dr. Cheryl Krasnick Warsh, a Vancouver Island University History Professor, is examining the iconography of travel destinations in transportation advertising from the 19th to the 21st centuries.  It all started in Hawaii when she... Read more


Picture of a landscape scene with one half a dried-up desert and the other half a grassy, flower meadow

Explore climate change with VIU experts

November 14, 2024

VIU experts available November 14, 2024 COP 29 is the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan until November 22, 2024. UN Climate Change Conferences take place every year and are the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change that brings... Read more


Jakob Tortorelli, Elise Cole and Dr. Mike Asmussen conduct research in Asmussen’s lab at the VIU Nanaimo campus

VIU researcher studying how to better people’s long-term ability to walk and run

November 6, 2024

Dr. Michael Asmussen is looking at ways to improve foot and ankle stabilization to increase performance and minimize injury. We use them every day, usually without a second thought, but for Vancouver Island University (VIU) researcher Dr. Michael Asmussen, this is why it’s so important to study... Read more


A picture of a solider and his family to the left, a copy of a letter in the foreground

VIU News & Experts: November 6, 2024

November 6, 2024

Remembrance Day, US election, memory development 🧠 In this issue of VIU news & experts:  Re-translating a classic war novel US election results Studying memory development Featured experts All Quiet on the Western Front – re-translated For two years, VIU Professor Emerita Dr. Katharina Rout... Read more


Katharina wears a poppy and holds a copy of her translation of All Quiet on the Western Front

VIU Professor Emerita re-translates All Quiet on the Western Front

November 4, 2024

Dr. Katharina Rout shares her thoughts about working on this classic novel For the past couple of years, professional translator Dr. Katharina Rout has been immersed in a re-translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, a work she describes as the “arguably most widely read... Read more


VIU Psychology Professor Becky Earhart sitting at her desk in front of a computer screen and smiling at the camera.

VIU psychology professor researching conversation memory in children

November 4, 2024

The research has important implications for things like reliability of child witness testimony in the justice system. Have you ever been in the middle of telling someone a story when you have the sneaking suspicion that this isn’t the first time you’ve told them this tale? Vancouver Island... Read more


Cobus Swarts writes on a chalkboard.

5 Questions with Cobus Swarts

October 24, 2024

The deeper Dr. Cobus Swarts immersed himself in mathematics, the more his passion for the subject intensified. Swarts, a VIU Mathematics Professor and Math Learning Centre Coordinator, started as a sessional instructor at VIU in 2009 and became a professor in 2010.  Growing up he was always... Read more