COHDS Award of Distinction in Oral History 

The Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling offers an annual Award for Excellence in Oral History, recognizing research excellence in the interdisciplinary field of oral history.  

Graduate students enrolled at Concordia University and affiliated with COHDS who completed their work after February 1st of the past year are eligible to be nominated (by their professor or self-nominated). Citizens, landed immigrants or international students are eligible. An adjudication committee at COHDS selects the best research paper, research creation project, or thesis. The results are announced at the annual Emerging Scholars Symposium in late March.   

Applications should include:

– Research paper or thesis, or any material describing the research creation project (website URL, text, images, etc.)
-Cover letter including information on the study program

For the current year’s award, you can submit an application by email until February 1st to the Coordinator and Community Facilitator: cohdscoordinator@concordia.ca  

PAST WINNERS 

2024 – Lea Kabiljo, for her PhD thesis in Art Education titled Beyond the Interview: Oral History x Photography Research-Creation methodology for the enhancement of social-emotional competences for teacher candidates in art education.

2023 – José Alavez, co-recipient of the prize for his doctoral thesis in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment « If I die far from you: Deep Mapping Grief and Loss in the Context of Migration ».

2023 – Lucine Serhan, co-recipient of the prize for her master’s thesis in Art Education, « In between: An autoethnographic inquiry into the notion of home amongst Palestinians Living in the diaspora ».

2022 – Zeina Ismail-Allouche, co-recipient for her doctoral dissertation and research creation in the Individualized program “ineradicable voices; narratives toward rerooting” an oral history research-creation based on the life stories of individuals who experienced transracial/intercountry adoption.

2022 – Emanuelle Dufour, co-recipient for her doctoral dissertation in Art Education “Des histoires à raconter : d’Ani Kuni à Kiuna Les mémoires graphiques en tant qu’outils de rencontre réflexive et conversationnelle avec les réalités autochtones et allochtones du Québec.”

2022 – Fred Burrill, co-recipient his doctoral dissertation in the History Department “History, Memory, and Struggle in Saint-Henri, Montreal.”

2021 – Amina Jalabi for her master’s thesis in Art Education “A Long Night: An Animated Documentary as a Tool to Represent Difficult Knowledge in Public Spaces: Transforming Compassion into Action” (2020)

2020 – Anja Novkovic for her master’s thesis in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment “Alley Atlas: from non-place to place in six maps” (2020) 

2019 – Emma Haraké for her master’s thesis in Art Education “Arabic Speaking Objects: A Collaborative Research-Creation Project Exploring Recent Immigrants’ Narratives of Displacement and Settlement” (2019) 

2018 – Dr Nadia Hausfather for her Doctoral dissertation, “Ghosts in our corridors: Emotional Experiences of Participants in Quebec’s General Unlimited Student Strike Campaigns (2005-12)” (2017)  

2017 – Dr Lachlan Mackinnon for his Doctoral dissertation, “Deindustrialization on the Periphery: An Oral History of Sydney Steel, 1945-2001” (2016) 

2016 – Dr Ioana Radu for her Doctoral dissertation, “Miyupimaatisiiun in Eeyou Istchee: Healing and Decolonization in Chisasibi” (2015) 

2015 – Aude Maltais-Landry for her master’s thesis in History entitled “Récits de Nutashkuan : la création d’une réserve indienne en territoire innu” (2014) 

2014 – G. Scott MacLeod for his multimedia master’s thesis in Art Education “Dans l’Griff-In Griffintown Three personal French Canadian narratives on their homes, public spaces, and buildings in the former industrial neighbourhood of Griffintown” (2013)