The Department of Economics is pleased to recognize the recipients of its 2024-25 Undergraduate Awards. The awards were presented at the department's annual alumni night in November 2025.  

Organized in partnership with the Economics Students' Association (ESA), alumni night brings together students, alumni and faculty to celebrate academic achievement and explore career opportunities in a variety of fields. 

The department congratulates the following award recipients: 

Chris Sloan Prize 

Ethan Tucker 

Edward A. Beder Memorial Scholarship 

Noam Lasry 
Mohammadtaha Ranjbar 

Stanley L. Warner Memorial Award 

Daniel Yu 
Mohsen Selseleh 

Tait Montague Book Prize 

Eduardo Tramontin 
Andrew Kucheruk 

The Annie Kaplansky Award 

Raamtin Farmani 
Aron Faizi 

The George Doxey Award in Economics 

Philip Lum 

John Robinson Award in Economics 

Rafael Perrion 

William Pearson Scott Scholarship 

Gurminder Kaur 

William Jaffe Book Prize 

Camila Tiemi Nakamura 

Learn more about the department’s scholarships and awards on our website. 

Professors Natasha Tusikov and Merouan Mekouar in the Department of Social Science have co-edited a special issue of Surveillance & Society, a peer-reviewed journal featuring interdisciplinary papers on surveillance, politics and policy. The journal is published by the Surveillance Studies Network Canada.  

This special issue, titled Resisting Surveillance Through Data Visibility and Invisibility investigates workplace surveillance, including Ring doorbells, facial-recognition technologies, period-tracking apps, LGBTQ+ censorship on social media and activist interventions by Forensic Architecture.  

Tusikov’s research focuses on the intersection of law, crime, technology and regulation.She is also a research fellow with the Justice and Technoscience Lab (JusTech Lab) in the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University. 

Mekouar’s research focuses on social movements, authoritarianism, norm diffusion and political economy in the Middle East and North Africa. He received his PhD in political science from McGill in 2013. 

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Janusz Przychodzen, a professor in the Department of French Studies, was selected by the Canadian Association of University and College Teachers of French for the Association of Professors of French at Canadian Universities and Colleges (APFUCC) Prize.  

The APFUCC Prizes are awarded annually, on a rotating basis. They recognize an article or book published in French and dealing with the French language, literatures or cultures, as well as the best presentation given at the APFUCC annual conference by a young researcher. You can read his selected article on .

Learn more about the awards on the .  

Thomas Klassen, a professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration, has co-edited a new book that examines contemporary Korean popular culture over the past quarter century. The book, titled Contemporary Korean culture from the edge: transgression, innovation, and intimacy (Bloomsbury, 2026) was edited by Hong Kal, Thomas R. Klassen and Jooyeon Rhee.  

This book seeks to provide new perspectives on contemporary Korea, exploring topics like fashion, food, music, art, literature, architecture and more, looking at how culture has shaped the country.  

Thomas Klassen holds a PhD from the University of Toronto. His research specializes in employment and labour, public administration, comparative labour market policies, income security policies, retirement and pensions, Korea and East Asia.  

Learn more about the book on .  

The School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies is proud to announce that Tera Gosse has been named the recipient of the 2026 Melissa J. Knauer Essay Prize. This prestigious honour is awarded for the best essay submitted in the social sciences on a topic relating to women. 

Gosse’s winning submission, titled On the Language of the Historical Colonial Contract: Language, Performative Acts, and White-Streaming Heteropatriarchy, offers a rigorous look at the mechanisms of institutional power. In Gosse’s words, the work “examines how settler colonialism persists through language as well as through law and policy.  Drawing on feminist theories of performativity, Indigenous feminist scholarship, and historical case studies, it argues that colonial authority is continually reproduced through bureaucratic, legal and institutional language that transforms domination into consent. The essay concludes by examining testimony, artistic expression, and Tori Gosse's poem All My Relations Blame You as forms of refusal that challenge and disrupt the narratives sustaining colonial power.”  

For Gosse, a Gender & Women’s Studies major, the recognition represents both academic rigor and personal history.   

“Winning the Melissa J. Knauer Essay Prize is deeply meaningful because it recognizes work that brings together my academic interests in feminist theory, Indigenous studies and social justice with my lived experiences as a woman of Mi'kmaq ancestry,” says Gosse. “My family history and especially the influence of my late Mi'kmaq grandmother, has profoundly shaped how I understand the issues explored in my research. Receiving this award affirms the importance of critically examining the systems and narratives that continue to shape our society and encourages me to continue pursuing scholarship that amplifies Indigenous and feminist perspectives.”  

Faculty members have praised the essay for its sophisticated and interdisciplinary approach. Nominator Professor Tanya Taylor noted that “Tera Gosse's work is original in both approach and content. Its sophisticated interdisciplinary analysis brings feminist theory, Indigenous scholarship and historical research into productive dialogue.”  

Taylor further observed that the research provides a vital contribution to modern scholarship, saying “Tera's investigation of how language itself reproduces colonial power demonstrates exceptional theoretical depth while remaining attentive to the lived realities and ongoing effects of settler colonialism. Ultimately, On the Language of the Historical Colonial Contract: Language, Performative Acts, and White-Streaming Heteropatriarchy accomplishes more than advancing a compelling ethical and political argument about resistance, testimony and Indigenous forms of refusal; it becomes a site of knowledge production that contributes meaningfully to ongoing conversations about Indigenous resurgence, historical accountability and reconciliation.”  

The Undergraduate Awards Committee corroborated this assessment, finding that “the paper was well-argued, clear and consistent unpacking of colonial governance and of how bureaucratic language works as a tool of control.”  The award marks a significant milestone in Gosse's academic studies, highlighting the vital intersection of Indigenous and feminist perspectives in the social sciences.   

Awalou Ouedraogo, associate professor and chair of the Department of Equity Studies, has been invited to address a major international gathering at the Council of Europe on Monday, June 29, as part of the 55th Summer Session in 2026 – an event bringing together leading figures in international law to examine the future of human rights. 

This year’s session carries particular significance, marking the 50th anniversary of the death of René Cassin, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a principal architect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To commemorate the milestone, organizers will open the session with a high-level international symposium in the Council of Europe’s hemicycle, convening global experts to reassess Cassin’s legacy and its relevance in today’s rapidly changing world. 

Held under the theme Human Rights and the Spirit of Resistance, the session will explore how legal frameworks continue to serve as tools for protection, contestation and emancipation amid accelerating technological change, geopolitical instability and overlapping global crises. 

Prof. Ouedraogo’s invitation places an equity studies perspective at the heart of these discussions, highlighting the growing importance of interdisciplinary and justice-oriented approaches in shaping contemporary human rights discourse. 

LA&PS students honoured at the 2026 Robert J. Tiffin Student Leadership Awards 

On Wednesday, May 6, 91��ɫ students were celebrated as recipients of the 2026 Robert J. Tiffin Student Leadership Award. The award honours Robert J. Tiffin, who served as 91��ɫ’s vice-president, students, for nine years. It recognizes individuals nominated by members of the university community who demonstrate outstanding leadership and make meaningful contributions to 91��ɫ. 

Recipients from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) include: 

• Isabella Gouveia, bachelor of arts (specialized honours) in history and concurrent education 

• Dipanpreet Kaur, bachelor of arts (honours) in English and professional writing 

• Rubaljeet Kaur, bachelor of commerce (specialized honours) in accounting 

Read more about this year’s award winners in YFile. 

Ali Asgary, professor of disaster and emergency management, is part of a national team awarded a $1.65 million Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) grant to train future leaders in data-driven, equity-focused public health. The initiative will equip students with advanced skills to better protect communities during health emergencies. 

Asgary is an expert in disaster, emergency and business continuity management. His research interests include post disaster recovery and reconstruction, business continuity and risk assessment, disaster and emergency simulations and modeling, applications of AI, VR, AR and MR, and geomatics in disaster and emergency management, and cost-benefit analysis and decision making under uncertainty. 

Read the full story in YFile.