(Ottawa, September 20, 2007) ― Two Canadian graduate students have been awarded prestigious fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to pursue their doctoral research:
Marie-Ève Ouellet has been awarded the Queen’s Fellowship, which covers tuition fees and travel allowances, for her work at the Université de Montréal on the history of the intendants, or high-ranking administrative officials, of New France from 1697 to 1740.
Daniel Grace has been awarded the $10,000 Aileen D. Ross Fellowship to pursue his doctoral work at the University of Victoria on women’s social networks in South India, which are destigmatizing issues such as HIV/AIDS.
“With its scholarship and fellowship awards, SSHRC is developing a new generation of researchers like Daniel Grace and Marie-Eve Ouellet,” said Chad Gaffield, president of SSHRC. ”Their work on AIDS and on New France are examples of how research in social sciences and humanities enhances our understanding of both new and timeless issues of concern today.”
Grace’s work, for example, explores how women in South India use grassroots networks called “sangams,” which grew out of the micro-credit model, as tools to organize themselves and share information, particularly on HIV/AIDS. Ouellet, meanwhile, is interested in the socio-economic relationships between New France and “Old France,” as well as in the relationships between the people who moved across the ocean and the intendants who governed them in both places.
The Aileen D. Ross Fellowship is awarded annually to an outstanding applicant to the SSHRC doctoral fellowships and SSHRC postdoctoral fellowships competitions. The fellowship in particular honours sociology studies on poverty issues, such as urban or rural poverty, homelessness, violence, or race and ethnicity. The Queen’s Fellowship is awarded to an outstanding doctoral fellow entering a program in Canadian studies in Canada.
For additional information on this release or on SSHRC research projects, please contact:
Julia Gualtieri
Media Relations Advisor
SSHRC
Telephone: 613-944-4347
E-mail: Julia.Gualtieri@sshrc.ca