WINNIPEG, MB – Two Manitobans were among 15 young PhD students to receive scholarships from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in Montreal, and both are University of Winnipeg graduates. Martine August and David Theodore epitomize a generation of young academics who are committed to tackling today’s critical social issues.
The Trudeau Scholarships, worth up to $180,000 each, will help the students advance research on crucial topics such as affordable housing, gambling addiction, water supply management, assistance to refugees and health worker migration. The scholars are all actively engaged in their fields and expected to become leading national and international authorities on issues that affect local and global societies.
Martine August – Ph.D. Planning, University of Toronto
Current Research: University of Toronto Planning and the Projects: The Social Implications of Public Housing Redevelopment
August researches gentrification, affordable shelter, and other implications of recent approaches to replace public housing in Toronto. She grew up in Winnipeg marveling at the city’s buildings and people, and exploring its hidden corners by bike and on foot. Early on, she became troubled by the contradictions presented by urban life, and turned to Urban Studies (at the University of Winnipeg) and then Urban Planning (completing her M.Sc.Pl. at the University of Toronto), to get a handle on how to pursue social change and address social injustice in the city. She is convinced that housing is a necessary element of any approach to address poverty, and is key to social justice struggles in the city.
David Theodore – Ph.D. Architecture and Urban Planning, Harvard University
Current Research: Building Health: Hospital Environments as Medical Technology
Theodore is fascinated by the intersecting histories of architecture, medicine, and technology. He argues that both the environments we live in and the basic need for good health are fundamental to our humanitarian aspirations. He likes to recount narratives about the intersecting disciplines of architecture and medicine, and not just their practitioners. He uses a material culture based interdisciplinary approach to history, as well as to mobilize the design of healthcare places in ways that go beyond scientific requirements. This method broadens the way Canadians think about buildings such as hospitals to include reflection on crucial cultural and social issues.
Theodore was among the winners of the National History Society’s Pierre Berton Award for 2008. The prize was awarded to the entire team of researchers who contributed to the innovative teaching website, Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History. He recently taught in Montreal in the School of Architecture, McGill University, as a research associate, and in the Department of Design, Concordia University. He is a mentor in the Health Care, Technology and Place CIHR training and research initiative at the University of Toronto. An active design journalist and critic, he serves as a regional correspondent for The Canadian Architect, a contributing editor at Azure, and a contributor to the Phaidon Atlas of 21st-Century World Architecture.
The annual $60,000 bursaries, for up to four years, subsidize tuition fees and living expenses and allow the Scholars to travel for research and scholarly networking and knowledge dissemination. The Trudeau Scholarships are the most generous awards of their kind in Canada.
In addition to receiving financial support, Trudeau Scholars benefit from the expertise and knowledge of Trudeau Fellows and Mentors, highly accomplished individuals in the Trudeau Foundation community who lead in both academic and non-academic settings. Interaction with non-academic milieus, including public policy networks and the public at large, is a key component of the Trudeau Scholarship program.
About the Foundation
An independent and non-partisan Canadian charity, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation was established in 2001 as a living memorial to the former Prime Minister by his family, friends, and colleagues. We support outstanding individuals who make meaningful contributions to critical social issues. To date, the Foundation has granted close to 200 major awards to top researchers and highly accomplished individuals, in Canada and abroad.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Diane Poulin, Communications Officer, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7135, C: 204.293.1167, E: d.poulin@uwinnipeg.ca
