Ringers

A book co-authored by Dr. Bonnie Leadbeater (psychology) and Dr. Niobe Way of New York University has won the Social Policy Best Authored Book Award at the Society for Research on Adolescents annual general meeting. The book, Growing Up Fast: Transitions to Early Adulthood in Inner City Adolescent Mothers, is based on a six-year study of poor African-American and Hispanic adolescent mothers living in New York City. The vast majority of these young mothers are leading responsible, productive lives by the time the study ends. The American society is an interdisciplinary group of researchers that presents this book award bi-annually.

UVic’s alumni magazine, the Torch, has earned a silver award in the “best magazine — small shop” category of an annual competition sponsored by the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE). The magazine, edited by Mike McNeney (UVic communications services) and designed by Rayola Graphic Design, was praised by the judges as “well laid-out, well-written and attractive…and articulates UVic as a particular and unique place in both language and visual style.” The CCAE represents 170 universities and colleges across Canada; its members work in alumni relations, communications, and fundraising and development.

UVic students took second and third place for their innovative business plans at the first annual Greater Victoria Entrepreneurs’ Challenge on April 16. Team GeneSys — made up of students James Degreef, Mario Laszczak and Jon Kerr — won second place for a project that provided a variety of software solutions to technological problems faced by biochemical researchers. Team Strategeus — made up of Steve Bocska, Hillary Samson and John Turner — placed third for a risk-management service designed for application software and video game developers. The contest, designed to encourage students to form new ventures, received 40 entries and had more than 130 participants.

A Stó:lo Coast Salish Historical Atlas has won the Haig-Brown Regional Prize from the B.C. Book Prize Association for the best book on B.C. for 2001 and UVic graduate students and alumni are sharing the glory. Co-authors Rob Hancock and Tina Rafter prepared plates for the atlas as part of UVic’s ethnohistory field school with the Sto:lo in 2000, and field school participant from 1998 Jody Woods has several plates to her credit. Co-author David Smith and author-editor Keith Carlson both have their master’s in history from UVic. The book was also nominated for the the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Prize. UVic English graduate student Karen Solie won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for her book Short Haul Engine. It’s also shortlisted for the prestigious Griffin Prize to be announced May 30.

The board of governors has approved the following appointments effective July 1: Dr. Elizabeth Grove-White as executive director of co-operative education for a five-year term; Dr. Doug Nichols as director of the school of physical education for a three-year term; Dr. John Anderson, chair of educational psychology and leadership studies for a two-year term; and Dr. Peter Golz, chair of Germanic and Russian studies, for a five-year term.

Anthony Birch, chair of UVic’s political science department from 1981 to 1986, has won the 2002 Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize from the British Political Studies Association for lifetime contributions to political science. Birch, who retired in 1989, is an authority on federalism and devolution, local politics and the theory of democracy and representation. He’s credited with laying the foundation for one of the major political science departments in the U.K. and is the author of eight books, including a standard textbook on British politics, The Concepts and Theories of Modern Democracy. “It was a wonderful occasion for me,” Birch says of the awards ceremony held in Scotland last month. “All sorts of people I didn’t recognize came up to me to thank me for what I did for them 30 years ago.”