Faculty Awards & Achievements

In 2008, Dr. Robin Gendron received a SSHRC Standard Research Grant for a project entitled 'The Big Nickel in New Caledonia: Inco's investments in the South Pacific and Canadian foreign relations, 1960-1988.' This research examines the efforts by a Canadian mining company to invest in the nickel reserves of the French territory of New Caledonia and the relationship Inco established with the government of France and local authorities in New Caledonia over the course of several decades in the late 20th century. It also explores the effects that Inco's interests in New Caledonia had on Canada's foreign relations, especially its relations with France.

In 2007, Dr. Jamie Murton came out with a new book called "Creating a Modern Countryside: Liberalism and Land Resettlement in British Columbia"

"From the start of the colonial period the government of British Columbia was anxious to establish farmlands and rural communities in the valleys of the province.  This book examines the role of the environment, and its relationship to the BC state, in the end of that effort in the 1920s and ‘30s.  It argues that the state’s relationship to the environment was determined in these years by the then-new idea of central ized, “scientific” management of social problems by experts – known as progressivism or new liberalism.  The efforts of new liberal experts to reshape forests and deserts into farmland largely failed, the result of their inability to properly comprehend environmental and social complexity.  Yet ironically the lesson of the program was not humility but instead the greatly expanded state of the post World War II effort, with its greatly expanded efforts to manage environmental change."

 

In 2005, Dr. Steven Muhlberger published two books on the culture of chivalry. "Deeds of Arms" analyzes late medieval chivalric combats -- how they were performed, why nobles took part in them, why such deeds were enshrined in literature.

Dr. Muhlberger also edited Antonio Preto's translation of "The Royal Book of Horsemanship, Jousting & Knightly Combat," a unique work written by Dom Duarte, a 15th-century king of Portugal.

In 2005, Dr. Derek Neal was awarded the John Bullen Prize for his dissertation 'Meanings of Masculinity in Late Medieval England: Self, Body and Society'.
The John Bullen Prize is given by the Canadian Historical Association for the best history dissertation submitted in Canada by a Canadian citizen.
http://www.cha-shc.ca/english/activ/prizes_prix/bullen.cfm

In 2005, Dr. Françoise Noël was awarded funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council based upon her research in the Humanities.
"Building and Growing Community: the History of Northeastern Ontario Communities" examines the history of community and family in northeastern Ontario, specifically North Bay and its surrounding areas. Additional details regarding her research and the award can be found on the Council of Ontario Universities web site.
She has also been elected to the Canadian Historical Association Council for a three year term - from May 2005 - 2008.