Janet Harron

Five Faculty of Arts graduate students have been awarded Scotiabank bursaries to fund their educational experience by travelling abroad to complete their research.

“This year, the arts grad studies committee reviewed 11 proposals for the graduate Scotiabank bursaries for international study.  We had previously determined, in consultation with SGS, that there were enough funds in the endowment to support two awards for 2015. However, the overall quality of the application pool was so high that we felt strongly that more than two proposals should be funded. The Dean of Arts agreed to top up the available funds so that it was possible to make five awards for this exceptional pool of applicants,” said Dr. Carrie Dyck. “The awards come at a critical time in the graduate students' programs, enabling them to collect or complete the data needed to complete their thesis work.”

One of those deserving students is PhD candidate Emma Lang. The bursary will allow Ms. Lang to travel to the community of Lerwick in Shetland to conduct research for her thesis.

“My thesis looks at worker organizations that existed in rural maritime communities around the North Atlantic in the period prior to World War II.  I’m looking at a few different organizations -- the Fishermen’s Protective Union in Newfoundland, a lobstermen’s union in Maine and the Socialist organization that existed in Shetland during this period,” said Ms. Lang. “The Shetland Museum and Archives in Lerwick has both paper materials and a collection of oral histories about the organization so I’ll be looking at and listening to those. I’m also planning on conducting interviews with the children and grand children of those involved in that movement while I’m there. My interest in the socialist organization in Shetland, which I learned about in 2007 when I worked as an intern at the Shetland Museum and Archives, is what sparked my interest in seeing if there were other similar organizations and finding the FPU. That curiosity in turn led to my deciding to pursue a PhD and coming to the history department at Memorial!”

The other 2015 Scotiabank bursary winners are:

Anthropology student Angeline Jones will also be travelling to Scotland next year thanks to her Scotiabank bursary. Ms. Jones is looking at the politics of alcohol in Glasgow where minimum pricing has been put forward as a possible solution to curb excessive alcohol consumption.

Amy Chase is an archaeology student studying the transition from Neanderthals to homo sapiens in southern Europe and is currently in Catalonia, Spain as a result of her bursary.

Emmanuel Banchani is a graduate student in the sociology department. He is researching the role of social support in improving health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the effects of non-communicable disease (NCD) among youth. He is planning to spend his award money on a research trip to Ghana where he will study in-patients at three teaching hospitals.

Finally folklorist Saeedeh Sadighjamali is currently making a second trip to Iran where she is examining how carpet weavers experience gendered power dynamics and the stories of brutal labour, exploration and abuse behind the production of the country’s famous carpets. Dr. Diane Tye believes Ms. Sadighhjamli’s work will make a significant contribution to the field of international folklorists.