Robin Cox

Research Director and Professor ResilienceByDesign Research Lab and Royal Roads University

  • Victoria BC

Robin Cox's expertise includes the psychosocial dimensions of disasters, disaster resilience, and traumatic stress and coping.

Contact

Biography

Dr. Robin Cox is a Professor and Program Head of the Disaster and Emergency Management programs at Royal Roads University, and the Research Director of the ResilienceByDesign Research Innovation Lab (RbD). Robin has devoted her program of research to focus on understanding the psychosocial, human dimensions of disasters and climate change with a particular emphasis on working with young people.

Robin is the director of the RbD - an applied research lab that conducts interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research using social innovation, creative action research, mixed-methods and participatory approaches to explore disaster risk, resilience, and transformative climate change adaptation with youth and communities.

Specific expertise includes:
individuals and community resilience; human dimensions of climate change adaptation; disaster risk reduction, youth engagement; the role of disasters in sparking social change and creative innovation; psychological and social impacts of disasters; psychosocial interventions; traumatic stress and stress; community resilience assessment.

Current RbD Projects:

1) Alberta Resilient Communities Project (ARC) - working with youth to use social innovation to develop youth-generated community resilience initiatives (funded by Alberta Innovates Health);
2) Youth Voices Rising - working with youth, community organizations and participatory video (funded by Canadian Red Cross);
3) Youth Resilience in the context of Oil and Gas Production and Climate Change focus on understanding and catalyzing the capacity of youth to contribute to the resilience of their families and communities in the face of changing contexts and communities; (funded by CIHR);
4) Youth Storyline Project - using photo-story and documentary film to engage Indigenous and Non-Indigenous youth from communities along the TransMountain pipeline route (BC and Alberta) in authentic dialogues to explore visions for Canada's energy future.

Industry Expertise

Education/Learning
Research
Mental Health Care
Public Safety
Health and Wellness

Areas of Expertise

Resilience
Higher Education
Community Resilience
Disaster Psychosocial Response
Stress and Coping
Qualitative and Mixed Method Research
Participatory Research
Human Dimensions of Disasters
Disaster Psychosocial Planning
Creative Action Research
Disaster Management
Mental Health
Disaster Mental Health Interventions
Disaster Communication
Youth Engagement

Accomplishments

Kelly Outstanding Teaching Award

2016

Awarded by Royal Roads University.

Post-Doctoral Fellowship

2008

Michael Smith Health Research Foundation.

Certificate of Academic Excellence

2007

Awarded by the Canadian Psychological Association.

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Education

University of British Columbia

Ph.D.

Educational and Counselling Psychology

2007

University of British Columbia

M.A.

Educational and Counselling Psychology

1996

University of British Columbia

B.A.

Psychology

1993

Media Appearances

'There was so much stuff': the 'second disaster' of unwanted donations

CBC Radio  radio

2016-05-12

It's not uncommon for goods donated during disasters to get shipped elsewhere, says Robin Cox. ...

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Radio interview about Fort McMurray forest fire

CBC Radio - On The Coast  radio

2016-05-09

Interview with Stephen Quinn on CBC Radio's 'On The Coast' about the traumatic effects of Fort McMurray forest fires. Interview begins at 2:40.

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Un Acadien au coeur du traumatisme de Fort McMurray

Radio Canada  online

2016-05-09

Comment les 80 000 évacués de Fort McMurray peuvent-ils s'attendre à vivre les prochaines semaines? Des centres d'aide ont été installés à Calgary et à Edmonton, où la plupart des sinistrés ont trouvé refuge. Conseils et trucs pour surmonter le traumatisme.

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Event Appearances

Youth Creating Disaster Recovery: A participatory action research project

XVIII International Sociological Association World Congress of Sociology  Yokohama, Japan

2014-07-01

Rural Resilience

37th Natural Hazards Research and Application Workshop  Broomfield, CO

2012-07-01

Creating and Exploring the integration of PhotoVoice and Human Library methodologies in community building

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Conference  Barcelona Spain

2012-06-01

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Research Grants

Children and youth’s resilience in the context of energy resource production, climate change, and the need to transition to low-carbon goods and services

Social Science Humanities Research Council Knowledge Synthesis Grant 421-2014-1025

2015-10-01

Current practices in energy resource extraction, especially carbon-intensive options such as natural gas and oil, present a major challenge for global economic and social sustainability. Children and youth emerge as key population groups both because they are impacted by energy resource extraction, and because they stand as potentially powerful actors in implementing the transition to low-carbon goods and services. Despite this, children and youth are noticeably absent from the social science literature on natural resources, and are typically excluded from impact assessments and national development plans.

This synthesis analyzes current knowledge about the effects of energy resource extraction on child and youth’s biopsychosocial health and resilience. It will also be used to make concrete recommendations for policy makers and practitioners to minimize the negative impacts of energy resource extraction on youth and maximize strategies for engaging children and youth as leaders, innovators and change makers in the global energy transition.

PATTERNS OF RESILIENCE AMONG YOUTH IN CONTEXTS OF PETROCHEMICAL PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION IN THE GLOBAL NORTH AND GLOBAL SOUTH

Canadian Institute for Health Research: Team Grant: Environments and Health: Intersectoral Prevention Research - LOI

2015-10-01

This LOI grant supports a transdisciplinary team of researchers, led by PI Dr. Michael Ungar, in the development of a full grant application for a CIHR Team Grant. This research focuses on developing a systemic understanding of how oil and gas industries affect the multiple social determinants of youth health. Participatory explore how to enhance the potentially positive impacts of extraction industries (e.g., employment, community cohesion) while mitigating the negative consequences of oil and gas production (e.g. finding better ways to help youth deal with family stressors, social disruptions and forced migration), and exploring how youth can contribute to low carbon economies. Simply put, we want to learn how young people adapt across the carbon cycle and use what we learn about their patterns of resilience to improve the lives of all young people. Both oil and gas production and the process of consumption (as it relates to climate change) have large impacts, both positive and negative, on social, economic and environmental systems that affect young people’s mental health and overall wellbeing. To better understand these complex relationships at both ends of the carbon cycle, a multidisciplinary and multisectoral team of researchers and community and industry partners in two communities in Canada (one in Alberta and one in Nunavut) and two communities in South Africa (one on the coast, another in the interior) will study the resilience of young people and the systems with which they interact. Unique among studies of resilience, this project will conduct four detailed case studies to examine the biological and psychological resilience of young people, family and community resilience, and the resilience of environmental systems as they interact over a period of several years.

Alberta Resilient Communities Research Project: Engaging Children and Youth in Community Resilience Post-flood in Southern Alberta

Alberta Innovates Health Solutions

2016-09-08

Dr. Julie Drolet - University of Calgary - Community Influencers Stream
Dr. Robin S. Cox - Royal Roads University -Youth Focused Stream
Dr. Caroline McDonald-Harker - Child Focused Stream

The Alberta Resilient Communities research project focuses on the lived realities of children, youth, and their communities in order to inform and strengthen child and youth mental health and enhance disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction, and resilience in Southern Alberta.
The research team is a collaborative partnership between academics of the University of Calgary, Mount Royal University, and Royal Roads University and community based partners from Calgary, High River, and the Foothills region.
Our approach to research and resilience-building is child – and youth centered, utilizing participatory methods where children and young people are engaged and empowered along with adult allies and communities to enact resilience building strategies.
Over the next three years, we plan not only to produce literature on post-disaster health and resilience among children and youth, but also contribute to the development of innovative child and youth informed resources, tools, guides and frameworks to positively impact resilience and disaster recovery. We will develop activities that empower children, youth, and their adult allies to implement resilience building in their households and communities, while also influencing practice and policy through recommendations to reduce disaster risk and increase resilience in Alberta.

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Articles

Community Disaster Resilience and the Rural Resilience Index

American Behavioral Scientist

2014

This article describes the development and field testing of the Rural Resilience Index (RRI), an applied disaster resilience assessment index for use in rural and remote communities. The index was generated as part of the Rural Disaster Resilience Project.

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Like a Fish Out of Water: Reconsidering Disaster Recovery and the Role of Place and Social Capital in Community Disaster Resilience

American Journal of Community Psychology

2011

In this paper we draw on the findings of a critical, multi-sited ethnographic study of two rural communities affected by a wildfire in British Columbia, Canada to examine the salience of place, identity, and social capital to the disaster recovery process and community disaster resilience. We argue that a reconfiguration of disaster recovery is required that more meaningfully considers the role of place in the disaster recovery process and opens up the space for a more reflective and intentional consideration of the disorientation and disruption associated with disasters and our organized response to that disorientation.

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Sequestering of Suffering: Critical Discourse Analysis of Natural Disaster Media Coverage

Journal of Health Psychology

2008

This article is a critical discourse analysis of the local print-news media coverage of the recovery process in two rural communities following a devastating forest fire. Two hundred and fifty fire-related articles from the North Thompson Star Journal (2003) were analyzed.

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