The Faculty of Arts is very pleased to announce the 2020 recipients of the annual Excellence in Teaching and Excellence in Research/Creative Activity Awards. (Note: these are last year’s recipients. The process was delayed due to COVID.)
Teaching Excellence: Dr. Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land, Criminal Justice
Dr. Dobchuk-Land’s research and teaching lie at the intersection of social justice, criminal justice/prison reform and security with their attendant racial, colonial and gendered dynamics. She is a committed advocate for social justice and the task of building collective capacities for social change. To do so, she employs pedagogies that allow students to draw on both their lived experiences and relevant social scientific literature to ascertain the ways in which the policies and practices of justice and security function and shape society.
Dr. Dobchuk-Land embodies UWinnipeg’s commitments to excellence, accessibility and equity.
Dr. Paul Lawrie
Dobchuk-Land is a gifted public intellectual who works with a number of community and provincial organizations on issues of criminal justice reform. Her nominees noted her key role as a trusted media contact, with one remarking how “she is sought out for her clarity and ability to effectively shape the public dialogue around policing and imprisonment.” This ability to clearly communicate with the wider public on a number of complex issues informs Dobchuk-Land’s teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
“Through her innovative pedagogy, care for students and service to the wider community, Dr. Dobchuk-Land embodies the University of Winnipeg’s commitments to excellence, accessibility and equity,” said Dr. Paul Lawrie, Associate Dean of Arts.
Excellence in Research/Scholarly Activity: Dr. Carla Manfredi, English
Dr. Carla Manfredi was nominated for her monograph, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Pacific Impressions: Travel and Photography, 1888-1894 (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018). Based on a collection of photographs taken by Stevenson during his years spent in the Pacific region, this book bears witness to the encounter between European colonial powers and Indigenous populations, illustrating the “potential [of photography] to produce a counter-colonial discourse that challenges the assumed correlation between ideology and image” (p. 19).
Dr. Manfredi is truly worthy of this award, and we look forward to her next project.
Dr. Glenn Moulaison
Manfredi’s monograph, the product of eight years’ work, is extremely well-researched, very readable, and has attracted some significant scholarly attention, having been reviewed, for instance, in the Times Literary Supplement (May 29, 2019). As Dr. Matt Gibbs, former Chair of Classics and now at MacEwan University, wrote in his letter of support, “this is a ground-breaking study and a seminal work that has been recognized not only as rigorously academic, but also accessible. Dr. Manfredi’s monograph is a true academic achievement and one that will have a significant influence on a major area of literary and historical studies.”
“I understand that Dr. Manfredi’s interest in this project was sparked when she came across a single interesting footnote. Clearly, this shows how inspired and inspiring scholarly work can be, taking us on long journeys of discovery and exploration,” said Dr. Glenn Moulaison, Dean of Arts. “Dr. Manfredi is truly worthy of this award, and we look forward to her next project.”
“We put out a call for both these awards in early spring and we always receive outstanding nominations. This year was no exception. We’d like to thank the members of the selection committees and those who wrote in support of the award recipients. We’d also like to congratulate all who were nominated.”
