Previous Recipients
2006: Michael David Marcuzzi
A historical study of the ascendant role of bàtá drumming in Cuban òrìsà worship
Graduate Programme in Music
York University - January 2005
2004: Nathalie Gravel
Géopolitique de la culture et de la production: les cas des ouvriers ruraux de maquiladoras au Yucatán, Mexique, 1995-2001
Jury Citation 2004:
"This is the presentation of the CALACS Dissertation Prize for the most outstanding dissertation completed at a Canadian university since the last CALACS conference in November 2002. The award comes with a prize of $1,000 courtesy of FOCAL. This prize was the initiative of a number of CALACS members, and this is the second time that we are awarding the prize. We’ll be doing again at the next conference, so spread the word to all your graduate students.
Cette année nous avons reçu sept thèses de doctorat, provenant de quatre disciplines: anthropologie, géographie, sciences politiques, et éducation. Le jury a considéré qu’elles étaient toutes les sept d’une grande qualité académique, et c’était très gratifiant de constater l’excellence intellectuelle de nos étudiants gradués des universités et des programmes canadiens . Las siete tesis plantean interrogantes de gran pertenencia social y política, y tratan sus investigaciones y los sujetos implicados en ellas con respeto.
Entre las siete tesis, una sobresale. Y el jurado unánimemente percibió la complejidad metodológica y la profundidad analítica de dicha disertación: Su título, “ Géopolitique de la culture et de la production: les cas des ouvriers ruraux de maquiladoras au Yucatán, Mexique, 1995-2001”, du Département de géographie, Université Laval . Su autora es Nathalie Gravel, quien en la actualidad esta haciendo su pos-doctorado en la Universidad Yale.
Un gran aplauso para Nathalie, y los mejores deseos de una exitosa carrera."
2002: Patricia Foxen
K'iche Maya in a Re-Imagines World: Transnational Perspectives on Identity
Jury Citation 2002:
"The committee reviewing submissions to the CALACS outstanding dissertation award competition strongly and unanimously agreed that Patricia Foxen's thesis, entitled “K'iche Maya in a Re-Imagined World: Transnational Perspectives on Identity” merits the distinction of the first CALACS award.
In its deliberations, the committee felt that Foxen's dissertation represents a truly major contribution to knowledge of Latin America with broad implications for a range of disciplines and perspectives. It examines large-scale post-conflict transnational migrations between Guatemala and the United States in ways that bring the experience and perspectives of the subjects to life for the reader. With extraordinary empathy, imagination, and theoretical sophistication, Foxen shows how K'iche migrants navigate complex and often dangerous transnational passages between one world shaken by devastating violence and another that inhibits the reconstruction of collective identities. It does so with compassion and respect, but also with a rigorous commitment to understanding guided by theory.
We have no hesitation in saying that “K'iche Maya in a Re-Imagined World” is the basis for what we hope will be a major book and that Foxen will become an important new voice in the scholarly community that CALACS seeks to cultivate. With this dissertation the author surpasses many established scholars in the field, and raises the bar for subsequent work on issues of identity in Latin America."
Please send your submissions to:
CALACS Secretariat
CCASLS SB-115
Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve Ouest
Montréal QC H3G 1M8 Canada