Celebrating the 2025 Humanities Faculty and Staff Award Winners
September 24, 2025
The Humanities staff and faculty awards recognize those who make outstanding contributions to the Faculty’s mission and community.
Recipients of these awards have distinguished themselves by advancing the Faculty’s mission to enrich human dignity, provoke critical inquiry, engage myriad voices and inspire innovative expression.
It is with great pleasure that we honour and celebrate Adebisi Alade (History); Serhy Yekelchyk (History; Germanic and Slavic Studies, SLLC); Iain Macleod Higgins (English); Richard Fox (Pacific and Asian Studies); Laura Smith, Geneviève Arsenault, Emmanuelle Guenette and Rowan Salverda (SLLC Administrative Team); Stephen Ross, Stephanie Erickson, Tilda Bron, Riley Campbell and Christina Thomas (Indigenous Storyteller-in-Residence Team); Mick Scow (Indigenous Studies), and Sara Harvey (French and Francophone Studies; SLLC).
Early Career Excellence in Research Award
Adebisi Alade (History)
Adebisi Alade's research focuses on the historical complexity of colonialism in Nigeria, particularly on the hygeine and public health campaigns of British colonial officials in the first decades of the twentieth century, and his publicly engaged research focuses on transitional justice in the Lake Chad Basin, particularly in the context of ongoing conflicts in Boko Haram-affected countries. Having earned his PhD in just 2022, Dr. Alade already has a monograph under contract with Indiana UP, and has published 7 peer-reviewed journal articles, five book chapters, six book reviews, and, since 2022, presented work at 13 international conferences. As his nominator summarized it, Dr. Alade’s early career is marked by “moral integrity, intellectual vision, and remarkable productivity.”
Engaged Scholar Award
Serhy Yekelchyk (History; Germanic and Slavic Studies, SLLC)
This year’s award goes to Dr. Serhy Yekelchyk, Professor of History and Germanic and Slavic Studies in the SLLC, who has played an extraordinary part in wartime resistance and public education since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. An expert on Ukraine, Russia, and modern Eastern Europe, Dr. Yekelchyk has become an influential media expert on wartime Ukraine. Within hours of Russia’s invasion, he organized a public teach-in that drew more than 600 participants, and, since then, has appeared regularly before media outlets, civic organizations, policymakers, and university audiences. He was instrumental in establishing our Emergency Ukrainian Scholarships, which brought two Ukrainian PhD students to UVic from 2023–2025, both of whom he supervised. As his nominators put it, he stands for “the highest ideals of ‘engaged, innovative, and responsive’ scholarship … [H]e has made an enormous difference in how the world understands one of the most pressing geopolitical crises of our time.”
Outstanding Graduate Supervision and Mentorship Award
Iain Macleod Higgins (English)
Iain Macleod Higgins, Professor of English and Editor of The Malahat Review, works compassionately and generously with graduate students across a range of fields from medieval literature to contemporary Canadian poetry and much (if not most) in between. Iain’s nomination package included glowing endorsements from three colleagues, two recent doctoral supervisees, and one MA supervisee, and I can do little better than to quote a few highlights: his graduate students praise him for “his lively, capacious thinking,” for his “deep command” of their fields (and of the craft of mentorship itself), and for his “unbounded generosity.” His colleagues praise his “deep sense of scholarly integrity” and comment that “in all respects, he is a model for our students and those of us lucky enough to call him colleague.”
Global Engagement Award
Richard Fox (Pacific and Asian Studies)
Richard Fox spearheaded the redesign of the PAAS undergraduate program as well as the externally funded expansion of Southeast Asian language offerings (Indonesian, Filipino, and Korean). He has been a key player in the adoption of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) seminars designed to bring together Canadian and Southeast Asian students. As Director of the Canadian Southeast Asian Studies Initiative, funded by a five-year Henry Luce Foundation grant, Richard has led the development of impactful and sustainable collaborations with partner institutions in the region, and the list goes on. As one nominator highlighted, “through these multi-faceted initiatives, Richard has not only significantly raised the profile of Southeast Asian Studies at UVic and across Canada but has also profoundly enhanced UVic’s global reach and reputation. His vision, dedication, and efforts embody the spirit of the Global Engagement Strategy by fostering deep, reciprocal relationships with Southeast Asia, promoting diverse perspectives, and creating impactful learning, research, and outreach opportunities.”
Staff Excellence Award
Laura Smith, Geneviève Arsenault, Emmanuelle Guenette, Rowan Salverda (SLLC Administrative Team)
The SLLC administrative team members were hired in the months and weeks leading up to the official launch of the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures. As a team, they shared the very daunting task of merging the administrative infrastructure of four different units into a new one, working against the clock to have a fully operational framework ready for the start of the academic year. In addition, they addressed innumerable student and faculty questions and went beyond the call of duty: clearing, cleaning, and repurposing various spaces in and around the new School. The four nominators stressed that, during the very demanding transitional year, the SLLC team rose to each task and challenge with skill, patience, grace, professionalism, and open heartedness – and always with a deep commitment to creating a welcoming and supportive environment for SLLC students, faculty members, and community partners.
H蓹uist蓹艐 Award
Stephen Ross, Stephanie Erickson, Tilda Bron, Riley Campbell and Christina Thomas (Indigenous Storyteller-in-Residence Team)
The presence of Richard Van Camp on campus as the Inaugural Storyteller in Residence has represented a significant step towards decolonizing our institution and integrating Indigenous pedagogies into UVic’s academic offerings. Since 2022, this team has worked tirelessly and collaboratively to make Richard’s visit as successful and impactful as possible, with Stephen gathering institutional support; Stephen and Richard working out the ISIR’s purview together; Stephanie helping to develop, design, and promote the courses Richard would be teaching; and Stephanie and Christina working on assignment design, course promotion, and multimedia projects (such as interview transcripts and video editing) that would return the information shared in those courses back to the communities that it came from. Tilda and Riley assisted as TAs with course design, marked assignments, and supported Richard’s integration into both the classroom and the broader campus community by coordinating vendors and venues and helping ensure that events reached a wide audience and ran smoothly. We raise our hands to this dedicated team who have supported what one student has called an “amazing opportunity” for participants’ engagement with Indigenous storytelling and pedagogy.
Teaching Excellence Award
Mick Scow (Indigenous Studies)
As his students and colleagues attest, in his classrooms, Mick champions dynamic learning, experiential learning, and student participation. He does so showing deep respect for his Indigenous heritage, for coastal Indigenous traditions, for family, for his students, and for the land. As one of his students wrote, Mick’s “teaching connects academic concepts to lived realities, whether through thought-provoking class discussions or hands-on community engagement, such as weekly volunteer sessions with the A Place of Medicine restoration project on Lək ̓ ʷəŋən territory. These experiences embody reciprocity, respect for Indigenous protocols, and a deep connection to place.” She adds Mick’s words, “It is always about the land,” saying that these words “reshaped how I understand our histories, governance systems, and responsibilities, while his reminder that 'It’s not a race, it’s a sprint' offered compassion and encouragement for Indigenous students navigating colonial institutions.” We honour Mick for his vital contribution to the growing Indigenous Studies program, for his fostering of students, and for his position as the inaugural weaver for the innovative IS 100 course.
Research Excellence Award
Sara Harvey (French and Francophone Studies, SLLC)
Dr. Harvey’s research focuses on media and performative cultural practices in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and encompasses an impressive array of fields. She has made significant contributions to French and Francophone Studies, Theatre Studies, Early Modern Studies, and Digital Humanities, among others, and has garnered an extraordinary amount of external funding in recent years, including a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, SSHRC Insight Grant, SSHRC Connection Grant, and a large grant from France’s National Research Agency, among others. Her study of the history of theatrical representation in early modern France, and particularly female playwrights and actresses involved in the Comédie-Française, has gained international acclaim, evidenced by the fact that her nomination packaged contained enthusiastic endorsements not only from four UVic colleagues but also collaborators and fans from MIT, Harvard, and NYU.