Several UVic graduate students are among the winners of doctoral fellowships in the 1997 national competition of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Each fellowship is worth $15,000 per year for up to four years of study at the PhD level.
Rory Coughlan, who earned his BA and MA in psychology at UVic, plans to stay in Victoria and conduct doctoral research into how different health care delivery systems affect doctor/patient relations. Coughlan plans to study conversations between doctors and patients in four different settings&emdash;private practice, community health centre, naturopathic clinic, and nurse practitioner centres&emdash;and interview both patients and doctors about their perceptions of their conversations and relationships.
Anthropology graduate student Judith Mitchell will continue her anthropology research at McGill University into changes in the status and autonomy of women in Kenyan pastoral society as their nomadic lifestyle becomes more sedentary and increasingly dependent on a market economy.
Social and natural sciences graduate student Kelly Nordin will be studying how university undergraduates learn science. She will draw on her experience as an instructor in the public education program at the Bamfield Marine Station where she conducted educational programs for visiting school groups. Nordin, who describes herself as "committed to creating communities of learners," is interested in how learners are introduced to the culture of science.
Victoria Scott is the School of Nursing's first SSHRC fellowship award winner and first joint PhD candidate from the School and the Faculty of Human and Social Development. She'll remain at UVic studying injury-prevention among seniors and people with disabilities.
Musicology graduate student Katherine Syer plans to use her fellowship to further her dissertation research on German composer Richard Wagner's concept of human psychology and the influence it had on all aspects of his music. She has studied and taught in Germany where she also researched how music directors have presented Wagner's work through the decades and methods they used to connect with their audiences.
Pamela Turner, a psychology student, plans to continue her graduate studies at UVic.