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By Suzanne Smith
Kevin Daley, this year’s winner of the Social Sciences Jubilee Medal, believes the secret to academic success is finding a discipline that really engages you.
“I started out my studies at UVic intending to get into law school, but by third year I got really interested in social justice and the sociology of law,” says Daley. “I found the sociology department very supportive, and I was especially impressed by Dr. Helga Hallgrimsdottir who later became my honours supervisor.”
Daley advises new undergraduates to “take a lot of electives, at least in your first two years in order to find out what you really enjoy learning. Focus on learning, and the good grades will follow.”
Daley took his own advice and, inspired by his interest in law, decided to compare patterns of crime control among Canada, the US and the UK. He discovered that Canada, as compared to the other countries, has remained more committed to rehabilitation than punishment. It’s not that Canadians are less concerned about crime, according to Daley, but that Canada’s criminal justice system partially insulates penal officials from the sort of direct control exerted by elected officials in those other countries.
Daley says that he felt incredibly prepared for grad school after finishing his honours research. He’s now three months away from completing his master’s in sociology at McGill University. He plans to pursue his PhD, but not before exploring some non-academic things. “After all,” he says, “I’ve been in school since kindergarten.”
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