Oct. 27, 2021
Adam Murry asks undergrads: What are you hoping to accomplish in the real world?
The winner of this year鈥檚 Killam Award for undergraduate mentorship was supposed to take over the family roofing business in Los Angeles. But Dr. Adam Murry, PhD, (Apache, Irish, Ukrainian), assistant professor of Indigenous psychology in the Faculty of Arts, had other ideas. He鈥檚 been teaching at the 草莓污视频导航 since 2017.
Murry says going to school instead of up a ladder wasn鈥檛 easy: 鈥淔or some folks, there鈥檚 no question they were going to go to college or graduate school. There鈥檚 a whole bubble around the value of education that assumes the benefit of going to school which everyone just takes for granted.鈥
That wasn鈥檛 the case with him: 鈥淭o me, [studying] was an existential need. But I got a lot of pushback around pursuing formal education. People asked, 鈥榃hat are you trying to be?鈥 鈥楧o you think you鈥檙e better than us?鈥 鈥 This experience taught him the need to justify what he was doing in tangible, concrete ways.
Idea to a design to an analysis to an interpretation
It鈥檚 a lesson he applies to his research today. 鈥淚n the research world, you have to ask why you鈥檙e doing this. What are you hoping to accomplish in the real world,鈥 he says. 鈥淎nd when I started teaching research, I kept hearing students say, 鈥業鈥檓 not a research person, my brain doesn鈥檛 think in numbers.鈥 I ask, 鈥楬ow do you know?鈥 They鈥檙e trying to compare themselves to something foreign without any practice.
鈥淚n my classes, we don鈥檛 focus on the introduction sections of the research literature. We skip the intro and look straight at the methods and the results. And by the end of the semester, they conduct a whole research project from beginning to end. Not with a focus on the literature review, but a focus on the skill of taking an idea to a design to an analysis to an interpretation. By letting people answer their own research questions, they can ask about things that they want to know about, including themselves.鈥
Approach to mentoring rooted in putting people first
They also examine a wide range of issues that affect Indigenous well-being 鈥 from mental health to interactions with the police; and from Indigenous allyship to studying best practices in Indigenous mentorship. Yet, despite the accolades he receives for his mentorship, Murry says it wasn鈥檛 as if he decided one day, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to mentor this person.鈥 Instead, he says his philosophy has roots in a household ethic of prioritizing people above all else.
鈥淚鈥檝e had a lot of good people in my life. Some of them arrived at times that were critical in influencing my direction. They weren鈥檛 necessarily trying to give me advice. Often, they were travelling along the same path,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 just try to be that person. You can offer advice to 10 people, and maybe for most it鈥檚 not for them. But for a couple of them, it will be just what they need.鈥
Works hard for students
That鈥檚 what Alvan Yuan, a former student, says: 鈥淒r. Murry makes elaborate efforts in investing in the growth of undergraduate researchers who worked for him. For instance, he has submitted multiple manuscripts for peer review and publications with undergraduate researchers as co-authors, myself included.鈥
Another, Miranda Harbourne, says, 鈥淗is course content and objectives provided me significant knowledge in psychological research methodologies, both in theory and in practice 鈥 [He] also inspired me to see the purpose and the power that psychological research can have on outcomes for the betterment of the human experience.鈥
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want people who are superficially engaged,鈥 says Murry. 鈥淚f I think what we鈥檙e doing really matters, I want to tell my students why I think it matters. If it doesn鈥檛, let鈥檚 do something else.
"I also want it to matter for my students in a selfish way, that is, in a way that鈥檚 good for them, because it will make the project better. I want someone riding on the bus home wondering how they can make the project better. I tell folks I want them to be personally invested because it鈥檚 good for them. And it鈥檚 good for me because they鈥檒l be involved more and have smarter ideas.
Emphasis on responsive research
鈥淵ou can produce a paper about other people鈥檚 ideas but contribute very little to anything on the ground,鈥 he says. 鈥淭he research we鈥檙e doing is responsive to the needs of the people we work with. I don鈥檛 go into a program or onto a reserve, knocking on doors, saying I study this thing, can I study it on you? People I know are doing amazing things. Sometimes those things involve research. Sometimes they ask me to contribute in different ways.鈥
Outside of his mentorship relationships, Murry also studies mentorship in a more formal sense as well. Together with the Alberta Indigenous Mentorship in Health Innovation (AIM-HI) and Indigenous Primary Health Care and Policy Research (IPHCPR) networks, he is working to establish an Indigenous model of mentorship that reflects Indigenous Ways of Doing. Both networks are funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research to increase the number of Indigenous health-care workers and improve Indigenous health research capacities.
Indigenous model of mentorship
He鈥檚 also conducting a three-part Indigenous allyship study that will identify appropriate ways for non-Indigenous peoples to ally with Indigenous Peoples. And he has worked with the Portland [Oregon, where he completed his PhD] Committee on Community Engaged Policing to develop a community assessment of experiences with the police that will recommend changes to the mayor鈥檚 office.
His approach has earned him high praise. 鈥淒r. Murry鈥檚 leadership in Indigenous mentorship, his careful and thoughtful engagement of students in research, and his unique mentorship practices that always put the student鈥檚 ambitions first are deserving of recognition,鈥 says Dr. Richard Sigurdson, dean of the Faculty of Arts.
鈥淗e is an exceptional mentor for whom authenticity of the research experience and deep student engagement are intricately linked with the quality of outcomes for students themselves, both in educational and professional settings, but also, importantly, for the communities they serve.鈥