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Each year, several UVic faculties confer awards for excellence in research to faculty members who have made significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge in their field. In this issue, we profile four recent recipients of such awards for leading-edge work in multiculturalism, the evolution of galaxies, digital humanities and sustainable business.
Dr. Avigail Eisenberg
(political science)
Eisenberg Photo: UVic Photo ServicesFaculty of Social Sciences Award for Research Excellence 2010
Dr. Avigail Eisenberg is widely acknowledged for her leading work in the field of multiculturalism in Canada and abroad. This award recognizes both her scholarly work and her remarkable ability to bring together in networks and conferences a wide range of researchers from around the world.
Eisenberg’s scholarship is notable for the range of issues she considers—not only cultural differences but also differences of gender, indigeneity, religion and ethnicity.
“The way in which we understand identity is central to how we understand human relations,” says Eisenberg.
She also has expertise in both the political and legal dimensions of multiculturalism, including the careful analysis of legal reasoning in critical cases in Canada and abroad. In this respect, her work is both highly sophisticated in its engagement with theoretical and philosophical arguments and grounded in its search for practical solutions to complex problems.
“I love my research because of its relevance to real-world politics and political change,” she says.
With two single-authored books from acclaimed university presses, four co-edited books, 13 refereed articles in leading journals in the field and 18 chapters in books, Eisenberg’s portfolio is outstanding. Her works are read and taught widely in Canada, the United States and Europe. Her most recent book is Reasons of Identity: A Normative Guide to the Political and Legal Assessment of Identity Claims, published by Oxford University Press.
Dr. Sara Ellison
(physics and astronomy)
Ellison Faculty of Science Award for Research Excellence 2009
Dr. Sara Ellison, Canada Research Chair in Observational Cosmology, has made significant contributions to the study of the chemical evolution of galaxies, with the aim of illuminating how the simple ingredients that came out of the Big Bang have become the rich fabric of galaxies and stars that we see around us today.
Using powerful optical and radio telescopes—including the Hubble Space Telescope—Ellison analyzes the light transmitted from quasars at the far reaches of the universe. “Some of this light will pass through a galaxy on its way to Earth, interacting with the gases in that galaxy,” she explains. “We can then analyze that light using spectroscopy and learn what elements and molecules are present in the galaxy.”
By studying light from the more distant galaxies, transmitted billions of years ago, Ellison is able to look back into the early history of the universe.
In 2004, the American Astronomical Society awarded Ellison the Annie Jump Cannon Award, given annually to a female astronomer within five years of receipt of a PhD for distinguished contributions to the field. Her work is supported by funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, and the Canada Research Chairs program.
Dr. Ray Siemens (English)
Faculty of Humanities Award for Research Excellence 2009
Siemens Photo: UVic Photo Services Dr. Ray Siemens, Canada Research Chair in Humanities Computing, is internationally recognized as one of the founders of the interdisciplinary field of digital humanities. He is involved in several large collaborative research projects on human-computer interaction, interface, and the electronic book and is leader of the Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) project, a multi-million-dollar study involving an international team of 35 researchers and 21 partner agencies that is developing our understanding of literacy in the digital age.
“We’re looking at several thousands of years of societal interaction with book-like objects and examining through them how society mobilizes and interacts with knowledge. We’ll be able to contribute directly to digital developments that will help us read better, write better and communicate better,” he explains.
Siemens describes his field as “the future of the history of the book,” and, as a scholar of both 16th- and 17th-century English manuscripts and literary computing, he is well-versed in the evolution of reading technologies throughout history. A prolific writer and editor, Siemens is founding editor of the electronic scholarly journal Early Modern English Studies, is conducting research on two early Tudor manuscripts, and co-authored Blackwell’s Companion to Digital Humanities (the seminal text in this field). He is also founder of the annual Digital Humanities Summer Institute, which brings scholars from around the world to UVic to explore issues at the forefront of the field.
Monika Winn (business)
Faculty of Business Research Excellence Award 2009
Winn Photo: Gary McKinstry Dr. Monika Winn, associate professor of strategy and sustainability, has been at the forefront of research into business and sustainability since the early 1990s. “At that time in management scholarship, nature just didn’t exist,” she says.
Now, the topic is in the mainstream and she adds to the body of knowledge through her research into how business and organizations can work with nature rather than against it. “Business and organizations have a tremendous capacity to get things done,” she says. “They can funnel resources and galvanize energy towards building the capacity to deal with the challenges of climate change and transform the way we do things.”
Winn is a prolific researcher and contributes extensively to the body of knowledge in her field. She is writing the editorial for a special issue of Business and Society on the topic of adapting management theory and business strategy in light of environmental and social change, and her article on the impact of climate change on organizational environments has been accepted by Business Strategy and the Environment. She has recently published on the topics of stakeholder influence tactics and corporate reputation management and contributed to the book From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate on the expected climate impacts on BC’s key sectors.
Winn serves on several editorial boards, including Business and Society, Business Strategy and the Environment, and the Journal of Business Venturing; she also sits on the program committee of British Columbia’s Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions and co-founded the Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE) Division in the Academy of Management.
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