Laura Funk

• SOC 2620 - Sociology of Aging
• SOC 3666 - Sociology of Death and Dying
• SOC 7420 - Qualitative Research Methods in Sociology

Professor Funk's scholarship advances social and critical gerontology through innovative examination of how paid and unpaid careers make sense of experiences and negotiate normative ideals, emotions and identities in their work. She explores how these processes engage broader discourses surrounding age, care and responsibility in a context of eroding formal supports. As Principal Investigator, Funk has led three SSHRC-funded teams, and as a coinvestigator, has participated on numerous Tri-Council grants addressing topics and issues related to aging, home care, long-term residential care, palliative care and family care work. More recently, Funk is involved in community-based research into experiences of housing and support among older adults.

• PhD (Sociology), University of Victoria, 2008
• MA (Sociology), University of Victoria, 2002
• Post-Baccalaureate Diploma (Gerontology), Simon Fraser University, 2000
• BA (Honours) (Sociology), University of British Columbia, 1997

Research interests

• Care work
• Family/friend caregiving
• Palliative care policy
• Service-integrated housing for older adults

• Funk, L.M., Krawczyk, M., Cherba, M., Cohen, S.R., Dujela, C., Nichols, C., & Stajduhar, K. (2023). “The beauty and the less beautiful”: Exploring the meanings of dying at ‘home’ among community and practitioner representatives and advocates across Canada. Journal of Palliative Care and Social Practice, 17. Online in advance of print: doi:10.1177/26323524231156944 
• Funk, L., Mackenzie, C., Cherba, M., Del Rosario, N., Krawczyk, M., Rounce, A., Stajduhar, K. & Cohen, S.R. (2022). Where would Canadians prefer to die? Variation by situational severity, support for family obligations, and age in a national sample. BMC Palliative Care, 21, 139. https://rdcu.be/cSMas 
• Funk, L., Irwin, P., Kuryk, K., Lobchuk, M., Rempel, J., & Keefe, J. (2022). Home care program flexibility as a relational phenomenon. Social Science and Medicine – Qualitative Research in Health, 2, online in advance of print, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100107
• Funk, L., Rounce, A., & Cherpako, D. (2021). Older adults’ and carers’ engagement in democratic governance in the context of system and government change. Journal of Aging and Social Change, 11(1), 81-97. 
• Funk, L., Spencer, D., & Herron, R. (2021). Making sense of workplace violence and victimization in health care work: the emotional labour of ‘not taking it personally.’ International Review of Victimology. 27(1), 94-110. 
• Funk, L., Herron, R., Spencer, D., & Thomas, S.L. (2021). Aggression and older adults: news media coverage across care settings and relationships. Canadian Journal on Aging. 40(3), 500-11. 
• Funk, L., & Hounslow, W. (2021). How do daughters interpret care work as a public issue? Exploring identity, emotion and discourse in the narratives of activist-inclined carers of older parents. Community, Work and Family, 24(4), 455-70. 
• Funk, L., & Outcalt, L. (2020). Maintaining the ‘caring self’ and working relationships: a critically informed analysis of meaning-construction among paid companions in long-term residential care. Ageing and Society, 40(7), 1511-28. 
• Funk, L., & Hounslow, W. (2019). The emotional landscape of accessing and navigating formal supports for older adults in one Western Canadian city. International Journal of Care and Caring, 3, 531-48. 
• Funk, L., Herron, R., Spencer, D., Dansereau, L., & Wrathall, M. (2019). More than ‘petty squabbles’ – developing a contextual understanding of conflict and aggression among older women in low-income assisted living. Journal of Aging Studies, 48, 1-8. 

• 2019 - Canadian Association of Gerontology Recognition Award for Excellence in Research on Unpaid Caregiving (October) 
• 2015 - Rh Institute of Winnipeg - Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship and Research in the Social Sciences 
• 2010 - National Council on Family Relations, Anselm Strauss Award

• A Case Study of Lions Place (with Seniors Action Committee), funded by Manitoba Research Alliance.
• Urban Dwelling Indigenous Seniors (with Indigenous Seniors Research Committee), funded by Manitoba Research Alliance.
• Supporting Seniors: Advocacy and Capacity Building for Manitoba Seniors Facing Systemic Barriers (led by Public Interest Law Centre with funding from the Manitoba Law Foundation).