As the year comes to an end, the University of Winnipeg community has a lot to be proud of. We’re re-capping the year to celebrate just some of the incredible people, achievements, and impact our community made in 2024.
Exciting and new in 2024
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., O.Q., C.D., Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada. Photo: MS Anne-Marie Brisson, Rideau Hall © OSGG, 2024
UWinnipeg was visited by Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon. She attended the Governor General’s History Symposium on campus, which explored how to move forward embracing the many voices in our history and helped lay the groundwork for a stronger more understanding Canada.
In October, UWinnipeg welcomed back former University president, Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, for a special book launch of his new memoir, Lloyd Axworthy: My Life in Politics.
This year we announced that the University will launch its first-ever PhD program. The PhD in Bioscience and Policy will equip students to apply their original research to public policy. Students will learn to mobilize bioscience discoveries to address societal issues such as climate change, environmental sustainability, and biomedicine and human health.
Also new in 2024 is the creation of the Chancellor’s Research Chair and Chancellor’s Emerging Research Award. Dr. Russell Mammei was the first recipient of the Chancellor’s Research Chair and the first Chancellor’s Emerging Research Award went to Dr. Evan McDonough.
A new Dragon’s Den-style initiative launched to help connect researchers with local investors, and UWinnipeg held its first-ever research photography competition.
UWinnipeg’s Research Mentorship Program added a BIPOC Mentorship Network that connects new BIPOC faculty with campus members who have institutional knowledge and can provide guidance on how to navigate the challenges of campus life and professional development as a racialized person.
Sheila North joined UWinnipeg in October. Photo by Trisha North.
This year UWinnipeg also announced an Indigenous cluster hire as part of a larger effort to advance Reconciliation and increase BIPOC faculty representation at the University. Through that initiative, we welcomed eight new Indigenous faculty members to our community. We also welcomed Sheila North as Executive Director, Indigenous Engagement.
Indigenous community and reconciliation
Sheila North was a featured speaker at the second annual Blaikie Knowles Woodsworth lecture. North was joined by Niigaanwewidam Sinclair, and katherena vermette for the lecture titled Culture, Spirituality and Compassion: Centering Indigenous Wisdom in Colonial Spaces.
UWinnipeg’s Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) program hosted its sixth annual networking event. The MDP program focuses on how Indigenous knowledge and experience can help shape a sustainable path for development, rooted in culture and identity.
People wrapped in ceremonial blankets
Two of UWinnipeg’s Master of Arts in Indigenous Governance (MAIG) program students defended their theses this spring. Anna Neil and Maria Belen Gallegos Espinel’s work was based on primary research on important Indigenous issues, through community-based research in community settings.
The Pathways to Graduate Studies (P2GS) program received 3 years of funding to continue to provide free STEM research opportunities for Indigenous students at UWinnipeg.
110 Métis students were awarded Louis Riel Bursaries during the 2023-24 academic year. The bursaries are valued between $1,400 and $2,500.
Staff and faculty awards were established this year to round out the Honouring Indigenous Achievement (HIA) Awards. Several UWinnipeg community members were recognized at this year’s HIA event in May.
The inaugural grads of the first Indigenous cohort for the Developmental Studies Program.
Students took part in land-based learning with the Indigenous Food Systems field course, students in the Indigenous Summer Scholars Program presented their impactful research this summer, and we celebrated the inaugural Indigenous cohort grads of the Developmental Studies Program.
The 19th annual Graduation Pow Wow was moved to May to create a weekend of pow wows with other Winnipeg post-secondary institutions and to honour Red Dress Day.
Student and alumni success
UWinnipeg provides a variety of funding and training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, including the Remote Research Student Fund, which, this year, went to Dylan McKenzie. Taylor Cangemi and Gracie Grift won the Sir William Stephenson Scholarship, and Grace Harding and Meagan Dutka were recipients of the Dr. and Mrs. Roderick Hunter Scholarship.
Master of Science student, Jasmyne Storm, received the Most Promising Bioscience Student of the Year award from Bioscience Association Manitoba.
Master of Science student in Bioscience, Technology, and Public Policy, Jasmyne Storm, received the Most Promising Bioscience Student of the Year award from Bioscience Association of Manitoba.
Rubeena Gosal earned the gold medal in chemistry for having the highest graduating GPA in chemistry, and was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Undergraduate Student Research Award.
University of Winnipeg Collegiate student, Pham Tran Phu An, was awarded the University of Toronto International Scholar Award, Political Science student, Liam Reid, earned the McCall MacBain Regional Award, while six graduate students received Trainee Awards from Research Manitoba.
Biology student, Annika Goodbrandson, received a national scholarship from Canadian Hearing Services, and Business student, Nav Brar, received a Futures Fund Scholarship for Outstanding Leadership.
Recipients of Trainee Awards: (Clockwise from top left) Camille Forbes, Indeera Hetti Arachchige, Jayson Gislason, Tia Bartel-Ens, Ranjini Mukherjee, and Madison Chisholm.
UWinnipeg students made an impact both locally and abroad in 2024.
Undergraduate students and a star alumna Logan Asham, Gracie Grift, Cassidy Lamirande, Paige Gordon, Abby Cochran, and Melissa Anderson travelled to Vancouver to present research at a national Indigenous science and engineering summit.
Olivia Kehler, an MA candidate in Environmental and Social Change, also traveled to British Colombia to represent UWinnipeg at the 2024 Western Regional Three-Minute Thesis Competition.
Undergraduate student, Thomas Hepworth, spent the summer conducting experiments at the world’s largest particle physics laboratory in Switzerland, while anthropology student, Melanie San Filippo, got priceless archaeology experience in Tanzania and Serbia.
Emma Friesen, Kamya Hari, and Maxina Sheft helped coauthor a paper that was published in MAGMA (Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine), the official journal of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology.
In Manitoba, graduate student Ruchini Sovis is working to improve soil health in boreal soils, Marketing student, Gino Pursina, was part of the winning team at North Forge’s Ramp Up Weekend, and Wesmen athlete, Donald Stewart, worked this summer as a practice player for the Winnipeg Sea Bears.
UWinnipeg alumni continue to impress after graduating.
Kirby Côté (BA 12) was inducted into Canada’s Sport Hall of Fame.
Shayla Jackson (MSc 24), joined an elite group of PhD candidates by receiving one of the largest and most prestigious competitive scholarships, the NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
Kirby Côté (BA 12), one of Canada’s most decorated Paralympic swimmers, was inducted into Canada’s Sport Hall of Fame.
Matt Schaubroeck (BA 11), Margaux Miller (BA 09), and Mike McGarry (Coll 10, BSc 21) graced the TEDxWinnipeg stage to share their big ideas in short condensed talks.
Vic Pruden, an innovator in the realm of basketball, received the Distinguished Alumni Award at Spring Convocation, and Rosa Walker, an Indigenous business leader who has served Indigenous communities for over 40 years, received the Distinguished Alumni Award at Fall Convocation.
Faculty and staff excellence
Dr. Mary-Jane McCallum’s book and art exhibition, which trace the exploitation of student labour at an Ontario residential school, collected two awards. Her groundbreaking history project also received a Manitoba Day Award from the Association for Manitoba Archives (AMA)
Faculty and staff were honoured at Spring Convo. Top row, from left: Dr. Peggy L. Day, Dr. Christopher Wiebe, and Dr. Ross Stokke. Bottom row, from left: Dr. Xiao-yuan Dong, Dr. James Christie, and Stephanie Rozzi.
Dr. Kevin Walby was acknowledged with a John Keith Irwin Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology in recognition of sustained outstanding professional contributions by individuals to the study of Convict Criminology.
Six outstanding faculty and staff were honoured at Spring Convocation, Dr. Karen Zoppa represented UWinnipeg at the 25th World Congress of Philosophy in Rome, Italy, and two UW faculty, Milos Mitrovic and Fabian Velasco, screened their film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Several UWinnipeg staff and faculty members published books in 2024, including Dr. Jason Hannan’s Trolling Ourselves to Death: Democracy in the Age of Social Media, which earned the 2024 Erving Goffman Award, a new edition of Brown Tom’s Schooldays launched by Dr. Mary Jane McCallum, and Everything and Nothing at All by Dr. Jenny Heijun Wills, which was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
Dr. Mary Jane McCallum wrote the introduction for “Brown Tom’s Schooldays”.
Dr. Peter Ives published Rethinking Free Speech, Dr. Laura Forsythe edited the new book, Around the Kitchen Table: Métis Aunties’ Scholarship, Dr. Kawser Ahmed co-published Keeping Peace in a Turbulent World: Reflections from the Field, and staff member, Cheryl Parisien, debuted her first novel, The Unweaving.
Oustanding research
UWinnipeg faculty continue to contribute to research excellence in 2024. The Community-Based Research Training Centre held its second annual Community-Based Research Summer Institute, and UW hosted another successful Research Week.
Dr. Nora Casson’s Canada Research Chair in Environmental Influences on Water Quality was renewed for $500,000 over 5 years, Dr. Anuraag Shrivastav is making novel discoveries that could help diagnose, and treat cancers, and Dr. Farzad Zaerpour hopes AI can help reduce emergency room wait times in Manitoba.
CBR Summer Institute participants and presenters. Photo by Jess Klassen.
Grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) were given to faculty for research projects on data brokering, communication intermediaries in the justice system, and understanding impacts of climate change on rural communities.
An additional $750,00 in SSRHC grants went toward research to address the ongoing misrepresentations and exclusions of Indigenous Peoples and history within the heritage sector, to investigate the physical and emotional separation of Métis peoples removed from their communities, to gain insight on the legacy of Greece and Rome on physical culture, and more.
Dr. Mirjana Roksandic also received a prestigious $2.5 million SSHRC grant for her archaeological research project in Serbia.
More than $1.2 million in Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) funding went to research in a variety of UWinnipeg departments.
Dr. Mirjanda Roksandic’s $2.5 million grant will help fund research about human evolution.
Dr. Sara Good’s genetic research is helping protect Canada’s fisheries from a devastating invasive species, Dr. Michael Beck’s research could one day revolutionize how farmers tend to their crops, Dr. James Currie is studying Combinatoric on Words, and Dr. Camilo Valderrama is using data science to make it easier to understand brain emotional responses.
Dr. Jean-Pierre Desforges received a New Investigator Grant from Research Manitoba for his work studying the impacts of climate change on threatened populations of polar bears and ringed seals, while Dr. Evan McDonough became the first theoretical physicist to be awarded Research Manitoba’s New Investigator Grant.
Science and Tech
In addition to the wealth of research happening on campus, faculty contributed to science and technology in the community.
The UWinnipeg Bat Lab, run by Dr. Craig Willis, studies many aspects of the biology of bats. Dr. Willis was honoured this year with the Gerrit S. Miller Jr. Award, presented by the North American Society for Bat Research in recognition of outstanding service and contribution to the field of bat biology.
UW hosted the Winnipeg Institute for Theoretical Physics 2024 Summer School and Student Symposium in August. UW also had the chance to analyze a 4.5-billion-year-old sliver of outer space.
The University of Winnipeg and Wii Chiiwaakanak Learning Centre hosted STEM Days, and UWinnipeg researcher, Dr. Manisha Ajmani, and her sister, Nisha Ajmani, once again co-organized the popular Soapbox Science Winnipeg event at The Forks.
Arts on campus
Dr. Stephen Borys, a pillar of Manitoba’s artistic and curatorial communities, received an Honorary Doctorate at Fall Convocation. Dr. Borys is a fierce advocate for the power of art to change lives and communities.
In February, the Acting III: Honours class performed the true crime ghost story for the stage, The Drowning Girls, which was directed by associate professor, Hope McIntyre.
The original work, Echoes of Time Forgotten, was created and performed in March by members of the fourth-year Honours Devised Theatre class and is directed by faculty member Claire Borody. The performance is the result of individual and ensemble responses to questions that explore the phenomenon of memory.
Oh, the Humanity and Other Good Intentions, directed by UWinnipeg alumna, Suzie Martin, closed the season in April. And, Silent Sky, a production that shines a light on forgotten women of science, opened the season up again in November, featuring performances by the fourth-year Honours Acting class.
Gallery 1C03 brought in exhibits such as FORECAST, which combined art with citizen science, while The In-Between featured larger-than-life portraits by local artist Laura Lewis.
Seven Generations exhibit brought together KC Adams’ digital photo-portrait series, We Are Still Here, with ancestor regalia from the Manitoba Museum and a newly commissioned short film, Relational Making. Together, these works exemplify Indigenous resilience and demonstrate the vitality of inter-generational matrilineal knowledge and creative making.
Gallery 1C03 also launched the University’s first Indigenous makers market, which showcased a wide variety of artworks and creative wares handcrafted by local Indigenous artisans.
Wesmen athletics
The Wesmen men’s basketball team advanced to its second straight Final 8 national tournament, where Shawn Maranan was named a tournament all-star. Maranan was also a second-team conference all-star and, after the season, was drafted by the Winnipeg Sea Bears.
Photo by David Larkins.
The Wesmen, currently 7-1 in conference play, are ranked No. 4 in the country heading into the new year.
The Wesmen men’s volleyball team has started the new season off in remarkable fashion winning its first 10 conference games to get out to the best start in program history under first-year head coach Chris Voth.
In the spring, the Wesmen were on the cusp of qualifying for the national championship after upsetting Mount Royal in the first round of the playoffs and eventually advancing to the conference bronze-medal game.
Shoftly after the season, longtime head coach Larry McKay announced his retirement after 35 years at the helm, and Voth was appointed interim head coach in July. McKay, who also coached internationally for Canada, guided the Wesmen to two national championships and was named the national coach of the year three times.
Photo by David Larkins.
The Wesmen women’s volleyball team was just one win short of the Canada West post-season in the spring, but had numerous individual honours: Grace Vallis and Brooke Duncalfe were named to the Canada West all-rookie team while Taylor Cangemi won the prestigious Canada West Student-Athlete Community Service Award.
The Wesmen women’s soccer team missed the post-season but had highlights of a dominant 4-2 win over Lethbridge and a 2-2 draw with Manitoba. Jazmyn Castro had a career-high nine points with three goals to once again lead the team in scoring.
Community impact
Youth attend Wii Chiiwaakanak Learning Centre’s free Indigenous STEAM camp.
This year more than $155,000 was raised at the Duff Roblin Award Dinner to support students on their post-secondary school journey. Plus, new funding will help hundreds of Indigenous youth attend summer camp at the Wii Chiiwaakanak Learning Centre. The funding will support the Centre’s Indigenous Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) Camp from 2024 to 2027.
Collegiate students River Shaw and Eliska Moravkova led by example, holding a book drive and fundraiser to get books into the hands of youth at the Manitoba Youth Centre.
In Bangladesh, UWinnipeg Global College’s Conflict and Resilience Research Institute Canada is helping to support education centres in refugee camps. And, Global College’s Dr. Shauna Labman is investigating settlement needs for displaced Ukrainian people.
Honorary Doctorates Patricia Bovey, Dan Thomas, and John Smyth.
This year the UW community celebrated the UWSA daycare’s 50th anniversary, and also celebrated honorary doctorates The Hon. Patricia Bovey, Dan Thomas, and John Smyth.
Thank you to all members of the UWinnipeg community for your dedication and hard work throughout the year.
