Faculty of Arts Awards and Celebration of Excellence 2020

Every year the Faculty of Arts honours a few of its best and brightest at the Faculty of Arts Awards and Celebration of Excellence. 

The event has become a staple of the academic year and, despite the limitations we face this year, due to the pandemic, it’s still an important opportunity for us to observe the diversity and scope of learning and innovation in this faculty, while reflecting back on another year of remarkable achievements. 

This year’s awards celebration will take place online on Wednesday, June 10, starting at 2 p.m.

Here’s a list of this year’s winners. 

SPECIAL RECOGNITION FOR RESPECT AND COMPASSION 

This special recognition goes out to two of our Associate Deans, Dawn Johnston (Associate Dean Teaching and Learning) and Virginia Tumasz (Associate Dean Undergraduate Programs and Student Affairs) for the way they have helped both faculty and students navigate through the seismic and traumatic changes of the COVID-19 crisis. To say that the teaching and learning landscape was in flux when the pandemic struck is an understatement. There was turmoil and uncertainty across the board. Johnston and Tumasz guided that rocky transition providing support to teaching staff as they learned how to teach remotely, virtually overnight, while also responding to worried students (and sometimes parents too), who needed guidance moving forward. They were available around the clock to help and responded to all the problems with empathy, common sense and, when appropriate, humour. They maintained a compassionate, student focused approach and helped teaching faculty recognize the challenges our students are now facing. We owe them a deeply felt gratitude. Bravo to them both. 

 

ESTABLISHED RESEARCHER AWARD 

Tricia Stadnyk (Geography) 

The Department of Geography welcomed Stadnyk in July 2019 and she quickly became a research force within the university. Her vision is to reduce the increasing global risk associated with a rapidly changing Arctic region through the development of practical state-of-the-art tools that improve the prediction of freshwater marine system cycling. Her long-term goal is to provide data to inform global evidence-based water and climate change policy as well as international water and Arctic governance. In both international and national arenas, she’s recognized as a leader in her field. 

  

ESTABLISHED RESEARCHER AWARD 

Martin Wagner (School of Languages, Linguistics Literatures and Cultures) 

A professor of German, with a focus on German literary and intellectual history, Wagner examines central issues in humanities research relevant to his field. These include such heady topics as internalized obedience, free will, bourgeois identity and Sigmund Freud’s minimal engagement with the rise of atheism, despite his preoccupation with religion. Wagner’s record of deep scholarly achievement is truly outstanding. 

 

NEW RESEARCHER AWARD 

Alex Jakobsen (Economics) 

Jakobsen has made a huge mark in his field establishing himself nationally and internationally as one of the leading researchers in microeconomic theory and decision theory as it applies to behavioural economics. He developed his rigorous research path while completing his PhD in economics at Princeton University, working with leading decision theorists and psychologists. Already he has been published in the top two journals in the profession.  

 

COMMUNITY ENGAGED RESEARCHER AWARD 

Dona Schwartz (Art) 

As President and Board Chair of the annual Exposure Photography Festival Schwartz has deeply enriched Calgary’s arts scene by broadening the festival’s connections with emerging photographers in our community. The passion and energy she brings to this job is undeniable and with that comes a level of community engagement that is truly remarkable. 

  

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH AWARD 

Noreen Humble (Classics and Religion) 

With a research focus on intellectual history and political thought in the Ancient Greek world, Humble has been invited to share her expertise around the world, giving talks as far away as Israel, Argentina, and across Europe. She also works in archives all over Europe and South America. Simply put, her output is prodigious. 

  

LEADER IN INTERNATIONALIZATION AWARD 

Timothy Stapleton (History) 

Since his arrival in the Department of History in 2016 Stapleton has contributed immensely to the department’s internationalization. He is a leading expert on military history in Africa and in 2019 he was awarded the Nelson Mandela Distinguished Africanist Award at the annual Africa Conference. His contributions to African studies are especially valuable as East Africa is one of the regions of emphasis identified in the university’s international strategy and Stapleton has been a huge proponent of collaborating with African scholars and institutions. 

  

TEACHING AWARD 

Doug McClintock (Economics) 

McClintock has been a key player in the Department of Economics’ undergraduate program with a proven dedication to his students and the development of new courses. These include his introductory core courses, his highly popular course on cost-benefit analysis, and his economics class geared towards engineers, a course required for engineering students. Truly he’s been an essential part of almost every undergraduate economics majors experience since he joined the department in 2009. 

 

EMERGING TEACHER 

Derritt Mason (English) 

As a professor of children’s and young adult literature Mason’s teaching is dedicated to student engagement, inquiry-based learning and collaborative learning environments. He’s also designed timely, innovative and relevant undergraduate classes on LGBTQ Children’s Literature, Dystopian Young Adult Literature and The Virtual Child, an upper year seminar on children’s digital texts and culture. 

 

EMERGING TEACHER 

Tia Halliday (Instructor, Department of Art) 

As an art instructor with an expertise in studio art Halliday has demonstrated excellence and leadership in teaching through developing her own courses, mentoring graduate and undergraduate students and through her research, which advances pedagogy of studio art. She’s also proven adept at collaborating with other faculty on campus as in her ambitious collaboration between drawing students and dance students. She builds critical skills through field trips to view artists whose work engages critical and social issues related to inequities of gender and race. 

 

EMERGING TEACHER  

Angela George (Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures)

As a teacher of Hispanic culture, languages and literature George is recognized and highly respected for the way in which she shares her passion for the field with charisma and care. She brings to her classes a high level of student engagement, fostering a climate of collaborative learning. 

 

AWARD FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT 

Sheri Madigan (Psychology) 

As a leading researcher and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) on the determinants of child development Madigan has emerged as one of the university’s most highly sought after media voices. Her engagement with the public through traditional and social media, as both an interview subject and a contributing writer is striking. Her research studies have been highlighted in the New York Times, LA Times, The Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, BBC, CNN and Time Magazine, to merely scratch the surface. She is also a regular guest on CTV and the top University of Calgary author for the academic powered news website Conversation Canada, with 560,000 views of her articles worldwide. Her status as a public intellectual and research leader truly does the University of Calgary proud. 

 

AWARD FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT 

Trevor Tombe (Economics) 

Tombe has become one of the most sought after economists in the country for public comment on a wide array of topics ranging from climate policy and carbon taxes to equalization, national unity and even whether or nor the City of Calgary should subsidize arenas and Olympic Games. Tombe generally fields at least two or three media calls a day and often many more than that when a hot news item falls within his areas of expertise. He’s also a frequent contributor to such popular media outlets as CBC, Globe and Mail, Macleans and PostMedia. He distills complex public policy matters in a clear and accessible manner to foster more knowledgeable public understanding and debate. Meanwhile, his social media outreach is vast. His Twitter page, where he frequently provides a public service with his regular tweeting of facts and easy to follow charts, boasts nearly 20,000 followers. 

  

OUTSTANDING STAFF RECOGNITION AWARD (INDIVIDUAL AUPE) 

Sarah Stevenson (History)

In her role as undergraduate program advisor in the Department of History Stevenson advises students, handles time tabling, ensures the timely submission of course outlines, organizes student evaluations, schedules the History Matters colloquium program, manages the transition of the department website from Drupal 8, as well as managing the department’s active Twitter account. It’s no wonder one colleague describes her as a “bottomless well of positive energy.” Further, she creates an energetic, collegial environment and is genuinely concerned with the well being of her colleagues and students.” She couldn’t be more deserving of this staff recognition award.  

  

OUTSTANDING STAFF RECOGNITION AWARD (INDIVIDUAL MaPS) 

Kate Innanen (Economics)

In her role as department manager in the Department of Economics Innanen has made the department more effective and efficient developing a strong support team and bolstering internal processes. She has an excellent sense of budgeting and financial constraints as well as the vision and empathy to help determine what these changes mean over the long term. Department head Rob Oxoby says: “Kate has been essential to any success I have had as department head. She has been able to identify problems before I see them and provide me with tools, information and possible solutions.” High praise that is highly warranted. 

 

OUTSTANDING STAFF RECOGNITION AWARD (TEAM) 

Psychology Team 

Department manager Shelley Wind, undergraduate program coordinator Michelle Vogt, administrative assistant Lisa Nguyen, graduate program administrator Brooke Lingnau, technician Larry Wenger and clinic coordinator Veronika Markova are well deserving of their outstanding staff recognition team award. Collectively they provide high quality support in administrative, leadership and technical roles in one of the largest and most research intensive departments in the Faculty of Arts with 43 full time faculty members, almost 100 graduate students and over 900 undergraduate majors. Further, they create a collegial and unified atmosphere within the department. Each and every day their collective strength is the Department of Psychology’s gain.

 

CELEBRATED ALUMNI AWARD 

E. Catherine Barclay Advisory Group —

Consisting of four Faculty of Arts alumnae — Silvia Rossi, BA20 (FREN, PHIL) ’93, Andrea Jung BA20 (FREN) ’94, MBA ’00, Audrey Taylor-Bereznicki, BA (FREN)’12 (ANTH)’12, MBA (MGMT)’18, and Paola Velasquez, BA (FREN)’17, BED (WSFR)’19 — this group works selflessly to promote the E. Catherine Barclay Scholarship, which gives students the opportunity to study their chosen field using their knowledge of French while studying in France. All four women are former recipients of the award and they worked tirelessly to promote the French program on campus. They are wonderful ambassadors of the study abroad program and they are passionate about bringing awareness to the E. Catherine Barclay Scholarship building relationships with key stakeholders across campus. 

 

CELEBRATED ALUMNI AWARD 

Joan Chand’oiseau (BA’04) 

Chand’oiseau (BA’04) graduated from UCalgary with a major in English and minor in Women’s Studies. She began her career in the non-profit sector on behalf of marginalized populations in the Calgary community. As program and education coordinator for SeniorConnect, in partnership with the Calgary Seniors Resource Society and The Distress Centre, she led the program to great success, educating the community on the signs and symptoms of seniors experiencing challenges. She also helped put services in place so they could continue to live independently. Her career trajectory shifted when she realized her three young children with special needs required extra care. Chand’oiseau became a positive health advocate in the community for children with ADHD and neurodiversity.