Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies | Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS)

91��ɫ grads earn national recognition for excellence in Canadian studies

vinish — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 13:22:43 +0000

Two recent graduates from 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) have received top honours from the Canadian Studies Network–Réseau d’études canadiennes (CSN-RÉC) for innovative work that explores identity, place and experience in Canada. A bilingual scholarly association, CSN–RÉC connects and supports academics, students and institutions engaged in Canadian studies through research, teaching and collaboration across the country. Each year, it recognizes exceptional interdisciplinary scholarship that deepens understanding of Canada. This year, two 91��ɫ alums received top honours from the organization for work done during their time at the University.

91��ɫ PhD student earns award for international student advocacy

vinish — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:03:15 +0000

Vedanth Govi, a doctoral candidate at 91��ɫ, has been recognized by the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) for research and advocacy advancing international student rights and community. Govi has received the Elizabeth Paterson Award, presented annually by the CBIE to an international student who has made significant contributions to the internationalization of their campus community. The CBIE is a national organization that supports Canadian students studying abroad, helps attract international students to Canada and provides resources, research and advocacy for educators, as well as policymakers, to strengthen the country’s global education presence.

Professor receives Faculty of Graduate Studies' Teaching Award

vinish — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 13:49:07 +0000

Carmela Murdocca has been named the 2024–25 recipient of the Faculty of Graduate Studies’ (FGS) Teaching Award, recognizing her outstanding commitment to graduate education and mentorship at 91��ɫ.

A professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and a 91��ɫ Research Chair in Reparative and Racial Justice, Murdocca teaches in several graduate programs including interdisciplinary studies, social and political thought, socio-legal studies and sociology.

She received the FGS Teaching Award in June 2025, presented to her by Alice MacLachlan, vice-provost and dean of graduate studies. MacLachlan praised Murdocca for the “exemplary care and attention she brings to cultivating [students’] research ideas and growth as scholars,” underscoring the award’s purpose to recognize ongoing excellence in graduate-level teaching, supervision and curriculum development.

91��ɫ U alumna makes history as Ghana’s first female vice-president

vinish — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 14:24:17 +0000

When Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang was sworn in as Ghana’s first female vice-president on Jan. 7, it marked the latest barrier shattered by the 91��ɫ alumna.

LA&PS honours Professor Emeritus Brayton Polka's 55 years of service

vinish — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 16:25:44 +0000

The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) is recognizing the contributions of Professor Emeritus Brayton Polka, one of 91��ɫ's longest-serving professors with 55 years of dedicated service to the University.

Polka joined 91��ɫ in 1966 with an initial appointment as an assistant professor of history and humanities. He served as a professor until his retirement in 2002 and now teaches part-time at 91��ɫ. His research and teachings have focused on European philosophy, religion, literature and the arts.

“I sincerely wish to congratulate Prof. Brayton Polka on his commendable 55 years of service to the Faculty of LA&PS," said LA&PS Dean J.J. McMurtry. "It is indeed a moment of pride for the University to have such dedicated mentors giving students the opportunity to pursue their academic interests with excellence.”

Polka, who is now 84, has always been committed to the development of students. Drawing from Kant’s Enlightenment call: Sapere Aude: “Dare to think,” Polka encourages his students to think critically, independently and truthfully.

_{Brayton Polka}

“It has always been for me truly an honour, a privilege, and a blessing to be in the position of helping students learn to embody in their work and thinking, in their lives, the hermeneutical imperative: do unto others what you want others to do unto you,” says Polka.

Lexington Books recently published his latest book, titled . He sees the book as another step along the way of life through which we learn to distinguish between paradox in the biblical tradition and contradiction in the tradition of ancient Greeks. “As you measure life, so are you measured by life. As you interpret others, so are you interpreted by others,” observes Polka.

Polka’s research interests have centred on the fundamental questions of hermeneutics—on what it means to interpret the text. His work on the relationship of philosophy and theology, specifically the relationship of the secular and the religious in modernity, has led to the publication of numerous books and articles. An additional new book, On Poetry and Philosophy: Thinking Metaphorically with Wordsworth and Kant, is soon to be published by Wipf and Stock.

Currently serving as professor emeritus of humanities and senior scholar at 91��ɫ, his everyday motivation is, to recall Nietzsche, “to become the person I am and to be the person I become.”

At present, Polka teaches in two graduate programs: Social and Political Thought (of which he was the founding director in the early 1970s) and Humanities (he also chaired the committee that set up the HUMA graduate program) by teaching courses and directing the master’s research papers and the PhD dissertations of students.

Among 11 published books, eight grants to date and countless other achievements, his colleagues and LA&PS honour Professor Polka’s commendable contributions and association with the University and congratulates him on his recent publication.

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