▷2021-2022
Graduate Award
PhD
Catherine van Reenen, University of Manitoba
“On the Limits of Auto-Critique in the Study of Religion”
Beginning with a carefully crafted literature review, this paper entitled, “On the Limits of Auto-Critique in the Study of Religion” details how auto-critique deconstructed and historicized scholarly concepts to provide a much-needed intervention in the field. The author warns, however, of the “simultaneously oppositional and reciprocal dynamic […] whereby auto-critique actually reproduces the essentialist approaches to religion it seeks to expunge” (10). As a contribution to the discourse, the author “[analyzes] the basic assumptions and operations of [the method]” and “gesture[s] toward a strategy to move beyond it” (2). This exceptional paper displays the author’s profound understanding of the topic through its thoughtful critique and the effective communication of complex ideas in its well-organized discussion.
MA
Ian Greer, The American University in Cairo
“Angrezi Shariat: Islamic Law in 20th Century Britain and its Colonial Antecedents”
The paper entitled, “Angrezi Shariat: Islamic Law in 20th Century Britain and its Colonial Antecedents” by Ian Greer discusses how “the hybrid model of angrezi shariat currently operating in the English legal system is continuous in principle with previous hybridizations of Islamic and English common law in former colonial territories, especially British Raj India.” In the paper, the author examines British legal recognition of Sharia in both British India and contemporary British society. They note the evolution and adaptation of angrezi shariat in the UK and its pre-migratory roots. They then note the accommodations made to British colonial law to support shariah in India and how aspects of shariah were incorporated into British commercial law to demonstrate reciprocity between these two legal systems. The paper is important to the discussion of Muslim settlement in diaspora as it demonstrates how Muslim tradition and legal practice adapt and transform in new contexts, and how societies and institutions also adapt and transform in relation to migrant communities.
Undergraduate Award
None this year.
▷2020-2021
Graduate Award
PhD
Heather Patrick, University of Manitoba
“‘Is that a priest in your pocket …?’ The power of rosary beads in the medieval domestic sphere”
This excellent and engaging paper adopts a “Foucauldian lens” to examine how rosary beads were used in the late medieval period as a means of biopolitical control of bodies by priests. Through a focus on religion and materiality, “’Is that a priest in your pocket …?’ The power of rosary beads in the medieval domestic sphere” contributes to more robust discourse about the disciplinary use of rosary beads during the late medieval period by attending to anthropological, feminist, and post-colonial theory. This paper was well-written, well-researched, and the author’s voice is present throughout. It adeptly uses Foucault’s work related to discipline to demonstrate how rosary beads were a means of controlling bodies and exerting power in the late medieval period and points to exciting future scholarship related to the materiality of rosary beads.
MA
Jessica Lynn Gibson, Memorial University
“Queering the Canon: Chitra Ganesh’s “The Eyes of Time” as a Revelation of Silenced and Erased Voices and Bodies in the Hindu Narrative”
The paper, “Queering the Canon: Chitra Ganesh’s ‘The Eyes of Time’ as a Revelation of Silenced and Erased Voices and Bodies in the Hindu Narrative” analyses the work of Chitra Ganesh’s art display, “Eyes of Time,” through a feminist lens and uses the theoretical methods of phenomenology and hauntology to explore and question how art museums replicate contemporary imperialist and colonial views. In this original contribution, the author skilfully argues and describes how voices like Ganesh’s challenge the white gaze through creative and meaningful re-claiming, re-imaginings, and re-interpretations of cultural memories, narrative, historical material, and artifacts. An absolute pleasure to read!
Undergraduate Award
1st Prize
Liam O’Toole, Bishop’s University
“Navayana Buddhism: Socialism & Buddhism as a Means to Liberate the Dalits”
In this paper, the author discusses the figure of Dr. Bhimrao Ramij Ambedkar and his efforts to liberate the Dalits from the oppressive nature of Hindu-Indian society through the development of a “New Vehicle” or “Navayana” Buddhism. The author describes how Ambedkar constructs a syncretic belief system, merging activist and materialist analysis provided by Marxism and the liberation of suffering as advocated through Buddhism. The author carefully links the development of Navayana Buddhism as emerging out of a contentious Indian context. The paper is well written, well-researched, and the author’s voice is present throughout.
2nd Prize
Devan Munn, University of Waterloo
“Female Religious and the Habit After Vatican II”
In this paper, the author argues that female religious abandoned ‘the habit’ as a response to and repudiation of social control of the female body. They argue the abandonment was not only an act of defiance, but a direct response to the particular social environments, the body as a site of contestation and resistance, and the very nature of the habit as a ‘restrictive’ garment. In the paper, the author links this revolt to the greater issues affecting women of the time. The paper was well organized, well researched, and a clear engagement with theory was present.
▷2019-2020
Graduate Award
PhD
Due to a lack of entries, the PhD Essay Competition for 2020 was nullified.
MA
Jonas Brandt, McMaster University
“The Politics of the Hidden Soul: Judicial Ethics in Augustine’s City of God”
This sophisticated paper sets out an alternative understanding of Augustine’s problem of “the hiddenness of souls.” Contrary to “Augustinian realists’” interpretation of “the problem of hiddenness as necessitating the judicial use of violence,” the writer argues “that the specter of hidden souls in Augustine’s theological anthropology cautions humility in the face of the unknowability of the other.” “The Politics of the Hidden Soul” capably reads primary and secondary literature, clearly explaining its object in fluid prose. Furthermore, it brings original analytical contributions to the conversation it enters, by sensitively attending to the ironies and ambivalences found in the two books of Augustinian theological anthropology it discusses. “The Politics of the Hidden Soul” thoughtfully considers fascinating questions about how much we can know others and ourselves. From Augustine’s 4th century judicial context, these questions continue to resonate clearly in contexts ranging from surveillance to expressive individualism in the politics of our own time.
Undergraduate Award
1st Prize
Ian Greer, McGill University
“The Perfect Man in the Philosophy of Zhuangzi and Ibn ʿArabī”
The paper “The Perfect Man in the Philosophy of Zhuangzi and Ibn ʿArabī,” examines and compares “the concepts of zhenren (真人) in Daoist philosophy, and insān al-kāmil (أنسان الكامل) in Islamic philosophy, and illustrate[s] the degree to which these concepts represent the same core idea.” The author’s comparison of these two philosophical understandings of the “perfect man” offers an original contribution to the field of study. The paper was well written, well researched, and well organized.
2nd Prize
Sophie Sklar, McGill University
“Jewish Identity as Reflected in Musical Compositions”
The undergraduate paper, “Jewish Identity as Reflected in Musical Compositions,” was well researched, well written, and well organized. The paper compared Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg’s musical compositions and examined how Jewish identity, belonging, and antisemitic contexts influenced composers’ work differently. The author shows great writing and research potential – an excellent paper!
▷2018-2019
Graduate Award
PhD
Lucie Robathan, McGill University
“On Impossibility and Illusions: Desiring Faith in Julia Kristeva”
This essay retrieves and systematically explicates religion-relevant parts of Julia Kristeva’s work with attention to a framing that is of the moment – the ethical and the affective. In evidencing substantial knowledge of Kristeva’s work, as well as the fields of poststructuralist and psychoanalytic thought broadly, the author dwells with the constitutive ambiguity and complexity of much of this thought while nonetheless offering the reader regular moments of resolution. Overall, this is a beautifully and sensitively written paper that speaks to the modern urgency of, at times, translating human needs out of theological language and into shared terms.
MA
Connor Thompson, University of Regina
“Deeming Things Religious: Politics, Religion, and Prairie History”
“Deeming Things Religious” is subtle in its thinking, inviting and nimbly handling categorical multiplicities (the political as the religious as the social as the economic etc.). The writer of this paper demonstrates a commitment to treat all of their topics in a realistically complex and fulsome way. Overall, perhaps the greatest strength of this paper is its joining of a general theoretical frame (the Tavesian approach to “special things”) to an impressively detailed historiographical project involving a nexus of contexts and problems in the Prairies.
Undergraduate Award
1st Prize
Justin Bulicz, University of King’s College/Dalhousie University
“Modern Values in Ancient Comics: Amar Chitra Katha and the Reflection of Modern India into its Past”
An exceptionally detailed, finely executed examination of a contemporary comic series in India that retells classic Hindu texts in comic form to advance a particular vision of a “unified” Indian nation. The author excavates numerous tensions within this literary project: a desire for authenticity in conflict with a desire for unambiguous morality, a desire for a universalizing Indian narrative that erases the diversity that constitutes India, a pedagogy that needs to capture contemporary youth via ancient scripture but do so in ways that don’t offend contemporary sensibilities, an affinity for Indian techniques of the comic and western sensibilities of comic audiences. The nuances of such contests are carefully drawn, and carefully positioned in larger conversations about the long traditions of comics in the Indian context and the use of art forms in nationalizing projects. The paper displays a robust knowledge of the comic series, the comic form, the religious scriptures that inform it and the nationalist projects it contributes to.
2nd Prize
Suzanne Bonfils, McGill University
“The Boy Who Lived (and Loved): An analysis of the Biblical themes of Life and Death and Love in Harry Potter”
A carefully argued, well-researched paper. Demonstrates an exceptional knowledge of the Harry Potter series and synthesizes this adeptly with the secondary literatures. The argument is balanced and well-supported, never claiming more than it can show. Offers tentative rationales for the overwhelming popularity of the Harry Potter series (i.e. its theology mirrors the cosmological and social justice understandings of a current generation) that are provocative and intriguing.
▷2017-2018
• Graduate Award
PhD
“Present Peace, Future Freedom: Children’s Meditation Instruction in Two Diasporic Tibetan Buddhist Lineages”
Christopher Emory-Moore, University of Waterloo
A sophisticated, compelling, and innovative examination of two children’s meditation manuals produced by divergent Buddhist organizations. The comparison is effected to make a larger argument about the interplay of ‘traditional’ and ‘modernist’ discourses in the self-ascriptions, strategic adaptations, and contemporary visions of diasporic Buddhist groups. The paper makes careful note of the incongruences the deployment of these discourses engender, tracking large scale shifts in the educational pedagogies of young Buddhists as well as more finely grained variances between sectarian approaches to secularism, ecumenism, therapeutics and soteriology. Moving smoothly between the minutiae of meditation manuals and the scholarly debates about modernist and traditional categorization, the author recommends a new conceptual apparatus of ‘adaptationism’, using the children’s meditation manuals to illustrate how this refinement would be profitable. The paper’s stellar organization and writing style enhance the arguments immensely.
MA
“In the Eye of the Divine: The Category “Religion,” Spirituality, and Consumer Culture on the Canadian Prairies
Connor Thompson, University of Regina
This paper undertakes a clearly argued and extensively researched exploration of the emergence of “individualist spirituality” on the Canadian Prairies. Tracking the statistical data on the growth of the “spiritual but not religious” [SBNR] category (and its affiliate, the ‘Christian not identified elsewhere’), the author argues cogently and persuasively that the Prairie provinces – “once a radical bastion of socialist cooperative thought” – are increasingly aligning with the prerogatives of a “individualist spirituality”. One of the strengths of the paper is the careful denotation of the many orientations housed within the SBNR category, and the deliberate circumscription of the paper to a discussion of one of those orientations, that of ‘individualist spirituality’. The author does an excellent job of exploring the ambiguities of the SBNR research to date. The paper offers an intriguing glimpse of the spatial locatedness, materiality, and consumerist ties of “individualist spirituality” on the Prairies, tying the discussion to a case study of the West Edmonton Mall. Situating the rise of ‘individualist spirituality’ on the Prairies within the histories of population and capital growth due to resource extraction, the author explores the relegation of social desire to the private sphere, provocatively claiming this relocation as a tenet of “individualist spirituality”.
Undergraduate Award
1st Prize
“Failing to Reconcile: Why the Canadian Legal System Falls Short in Protecting Indigenous Religious Rights”
Lilly Gates, McGill University
Wonderfully clear writing and seamless, logical progression of ideas. Cogent explanation of the relevant UN documents and Canadian laws at play, and how the assumptions of the legal decision-makers and the worldview of the Ktunaxa nation interact in the context of them and the additional context of reconciliation as defined by the TRC. Weaves between levels of specific legal analysis regarding the details of the case at hand and a very long historical view. Acknowledges the multiple relationships Indigenous people may have with the Canadian government, with Christianity, and with their own communities and institutions. Also sophisticated in that it marshals evidence from other Indigenous-settler state relationships to make the case for clear steps forward to improve the ability of Canadian legal protections regarding religion to protect Indigenous people as well as non-Indigenous people.
2nd Prize
“The Idea(l) of Public Reason: Religion in Rawls’s Political Liberalism”
Jonas Brandt, University of Winnipeg
In beautifully nuanced prose this essay advances arguments against the presumption of religion’s extricability from people’s thought and behaviour; against the presumption that religion is inherently irrational, or at least essentially and significantly moreso than other modes of engaging with the world; and for a reconsideration of what enables and strengthens civic discourse and democracy.
▷2016-2017
• Graduate Award
PhD
“Conversion to Civilization: Protestant Missionary Writings in Colonial South India Before and After the Pious Clause”
Lisa Blake, McGill University
Through close and careful reading of missionary writings, the author compares and contrasts the discursive renderings of low-caste village-based Hindu subjects in the texts of missionary societies long established in south India and in those that followed the introduction of the “Pious Clause” to the East India Company Charter in 1813. Delineating the disparate presentations of caste, disease, and ritual in these two eras, the author argues that the urgent, emotional tone and style that marked the 19th century missionary letters, autobiographies, and other expositions were a concentrated effort to promulgate the “civilizing mission” that undergirded British claims to legitimate colonial rule in India. The evocative portrayals of village Hinduism in desperate need of “rescue” (in combination with conversion) were mobilized to display a colonial subject in perpetual need for the presence and guidance of the colonial government. The marked contrast to the more staid and prosaic writings of an earlier missionary era are carefully drawn, and skillfully used to advance the author’s argument that “the increasing reach of the colonial enterprise in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was mirrored within the missionary networks on the subcontinent”.
The clarity of the argument, the well stated thesis, and skillful marshalling of a variety of secondary and primary sources make this essay stand out. The careful historical research is developed in close evocation with postcolonial theory / subaltern studies, and the role of missionaries in the ‘civilizing’ project of British Empire emerges as nuanced and changing. The author’s detailing of missionary perspectives on medicine, ritual, and caste is what moves the argument forward; an exemplary development of a larger historical argument rooted in the details of the historical record.
MA
“Between Recognition and Regulation: Relating Indigenous Sovereignty to Canadian Secularism and State Violence”
Stacie Swain, University of Ottawa
The paper is sophisticated in its attempt to theorize both the ‘recognition’ the contemporary secular, liberal colonial-settler state grants to spirituality of indigenous groups, while simultaneously relying on its own identity as a “secular” technology of governance to “regulate” the politico-spiritual attestations of indigenous groups. Drawing on current critical scholarship on the category of the “secular”, the author articulates how the myth of objectivity and neutrality enabled by the category of the secular legitimates the contemporary state’s regulation of “religions”, even as it obligates the states’ commitments to religious freedom and inclusivity. This precarious tension between regulation and recognition is carefully excavated in the author’s exploration of indigenous mobilizations of the eagle feather in Canadian politics. Skillfully drawing on Naomi Goldenberg’s notion of religions as “vestigial states”, the author explores indigenous spirituality as distinctive form of political culture, examines the unique logics of religion vs. spirituality in indigenous – settler politics, and explores the selective efficacy of indigenous spiritual symbols vis a vis state violence, state regulation, and state recognition. The argument is coherently built, thoughtfully executed, and exceptionally adept at weaving contemporary instances of indigenous display of the eagle feather into a dense theoretical framework that places this paper at the heart of scholarly conversations about the category of the secular, the politics of indigeneity, and the public role of religion.
Undergraduate Award
1st Prize
“The Problem of Female Endogamy in Islam: The Case of Tunisia”
Jonathan Widell, McGill University
This student exhibits good knowledge of the Islamic lines of authority and jurisprudence relating to female endogamy in Tunisia. The essay unravels the arguments used to prevent Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men through a clear explanation of the interplay between Islamic law, international human rights and certain interpretations of Qur’anic verses. The essay compares the Tunisian shari’a to the human rights endorsed by the country through its signature on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam and the Arab Charter on Human Rights. Theological justifications underpinning shari’a law are questioned by the student in light of Islamic scholars’ critiques of Qur’anic passages and subsequent theology. The complicated scenario of human rights, national law and Islamic theology is critiqued through a gendered analysis of the intent behind specific laws prohibiting a woman’s right to marry a non-Muslim man, and concludes by finding no justification theologically, historically or legally to inhibit that right. Two things stand out refreshingly in this essay: the student’s knowledge of and ability to navigate complicated and nuanced material in a clear and concise manner, and the student’s clear and sustained personal positioning from the start. A short section on definitions and categories would be helpful to readers unfamiliar with this topic. The paper is an excellent illustration of the need for a deep knowledge of religions when politics, law and women’s rights are in question.
2nd Prize
“A Lived Theology: An Exploration of the life, work and theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer”
Cole Miller, Nipissing University
A well-written, focussed paper which achieved its goal of establishing Bonhoeffer’s theology as it related to his actions. Citations and sources were also good. It was a strong contender, however the paper did not reflect any contemporary analysis of Bonhoeffer, either in terms of recent scholarly work or of its possible application or meaning to today’s world nor did it indicate the student’s relationship to the topic, her/his views on it, etc. It seems to me there is much to learn from Bonhoeffer, particularly his theology of action, his intention on interreligious dialogue as opposed to the seemingly inclusivist or even exclusivist approach as described in the paper, and so on.
▷2015-2016
• Graduate Award
PhD
“Bibles in the Badlands: Colonial Dinosaur discoveries and the Making of Canadian Origin Myths”
Anthony Scott, University of Toronto
This original work, the writer’s evident knowledge and sensitivity to Blackfoot, Peigan and Sarcee traditions, and a strong tone of advocacy scholarship brings readers to an understanding of how the demise of Iiniiwa (bison) is connected to the excavation and sterilization of dinosaur fossils, all done through the colonialist lenses of Christianity (Jean Baptise L’Heureux) and science (Joseph Burr Tyrell). The writing of this paper and CSSR recognising the significance and strength of this paper is an appropriate response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The deep colonising that occurred, and continues to occur when we ignore the evidence this writer offers as to how L’Heureux and Tyrell approached the “Indian problem” in the making of our nation, makes it all the more appropriate that this award be given while Congress meets in Alberta where the Bible and the Badlands intersect. The paper prepares us to move forward as a Religious Studies academy towards decolonization and a new narrative of deep healing.
MA
“Refutatio Romana: The Political Dimensions of Religious Alterity in Tacitus’ Histories 5”
Sarah L. Veale, University of Toronto
The writer exhibits strong research and writing skills and a mastery of numerous contexts, literature and cultures in an examination of Roman and Judean understandings of religious and cultural identities, treatment of “the other,” and worship of the divine. Using primary and secondary sources on Plutarch’s and Tacitus’ writings, a strong methodological approach emerges that displays a breadth and depth of anthropological, postcolonial and literary analyses. Bringing ancient texts forward to contemporary relevancy in an engaging and well-constructed argument is accomplished with a good degree of self-awareness in terms of methodology, theory and self-location. This paper emphasises the ongoing need for strong textual analysis within the realm of Religious Studies.
• Undergraduate Award
1st Prize
Sarah Gorman, Carleton University
“Reconciling Moral Autonomy with Submission to Religious Law”
This is a well-organized essay with a well-structured argument; both of which are features that go a long way towards clarity of the ideas for the reader. The introduction provides a good overview of what will be done in the paragraphs to follow. There is straightforward consideration of a) an aspect of Christianity through the lens of Lewis Roy (who glosses Tillich and Aquinas) together with b) the concept of relational autonomy/heteronomous (external) laws to argue that religious faith and autonomy are not antithetical. Each of the terms are defined, and there are solid overviews of the key sources on which the argument is based: Catriona Mackenzie and Natalie Stoljar’s “Introduction” to Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency, and the Social Self and Lewis Roy’s article “Does Christian Faith Rule out Human Autonomy?”, particularly regarding “participatory theonomy.” The writing style is very nice and the piece flows well.
2nd Prize
Matthew Malone, McGill University
“Sexual Discourse in Contemporary Radical Sunni Islamist Thought”
This essay purports the development of radical Islam in the Middle East within a context of modernity and exposure to Western ideas. Qutb is discussed as an example of this exposure. It is apparent that this author is engaged with the material and struggling to understand some deeply complex issues through academic endeavor.
▷2014-2015
• Graduate Award
PhD
“The Karbala Narrative, Performance, and Politics in Iran”
Yasmin Merchant, Religious Studies, University of Alberta
This short essay is well organized, clearly written, and properly formatted. The section on historical and cultural contextualization and the section integrating Turner’s anthropological theory of ritual (with passing references to Austin and Butler) in regard to the Karbala narrative and its performance are the strongest parts of this work. There is insightful linking of performance with reinforcing sectarian identity. This was the strongest of the doctoral papers submitted.
MA
“Androgyny and Authority in the Apocryphon of John”
Roxanne L. Korpan, Department of Religious Studies, University of Regina
This essay to some extent allows the ideas and concepts in the Apocryphon of John to influence the ideas of androgyny that the author of this essay intended to use the text to demonstrate. There is good judicious integration of citations and excerpts from the Apocryphon because they assist in clarifying how this author constructs his or her understanding of the text. This engagement with the text make this essay intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking.
• Undergraduate Award
1st Prize
Claire Dunn, Concordia University
“Muslim Women through the Orientalist Gaze: Western Perspectives pre and post 9/11”
The author of this paper ably and cogently employs the works of Canadian scholars to critique our national perceptions and tropes on multiculturalism, Muslims, Muslim women and the veil. A reader who is unaware of this issue should, by the time they have read this paper, be troubled about “the West’s” perception that Muslim women are in need of saving and be motivated to seek how and why this narrative is so popular amongst those who wish to essentialize the superiority of the U.S. or Canada (read non-Muslims) over Middle Eastern countries (read Muslim). This is a lovely example of why critical thinking and research skills are needed to counteract the rise in Islamophobic rhetoric. The student shows self-awareness and brings personal perspective to the debate, writing: “Above all, what amazes me most…is that at once there can exist a national belief that the veil – as an Orientalist trope – serves as visual justification of transnational ‘feminist’ intervention and colonialist ‘saving,’ while domestically, it invokes the same kinds of oppressive victimization and goes ignored.” It is important to lift up this kind of scholarship that is taught in our academies and show how students are reflecting this citizenship engagement within their own research and writing. This paper shows the relevancy of our field within national and political debate.
2nd Prize
Benjamin Sherick, University of Calgary
“Islam Observed: Issues of Interpretation in Religious Histories”
This student uses the works of historian Keith Jenkins and religious studies scholar William Paden to show how scholars and non-scholars alike “are not exempt from the interpretive process.” Religious worlds are constructed and critiqued, “shaped and selected” from specific locations that need to be made evident to the reader. The author uses Karen Armstrong and Efraim Karsh as two examples of how Islam has been constructed from two different motivational locations: the former illustrating the benevolence of Islamic practices and traditions, the latter showing the expansionist motivation within Islam. The paper does a good job of illustrating how writing is itself an act of selecting specific portions of the landscape that best serves our particular motivational positioning, and thus illustrates a good grasp of critical thinking and research skills in addition to clear writing on a complicated issue.
▷2013-2014
▷2012-2013
• Graduate Award
1st Prize $700.00
Booker Thomas Alston, PhD Program, University of Cape Town
“The Politics of Colonial Comparative Religion: The Ghost Dance of 1890 and Mormonism”
This paper focuses on the work of nineteenth century colonialist scholars engaged in the comparative study of religion for the broader purpose of highlighting the political dimensions of such activity. Drawing on David Chidester’s study of colonial comparative religious studies in South Africa, Booker T. Alston successfully applies the same critical analytical framework to the American western frontier where two religious groups were neighbours: Mormons and native American Ghost Dancers. He makes an effective case by combining his reading of nineteenth century sources with recent critical scholarship to shed light on a narrative of containment that was created and justified through classification and comparison in ways that are shown to be both inaccurate and politically expedient. The result is an engaging glimpse into a moment of American religious history and its politically charged construction for the broader purpose of making a well-stated cautionary statement about method in the study of religions.
2nd Prize $300.00
Craig Skrumedi, PhD Program, University of Ottawa
“The Peoples’ Temple/Jonestown: A Case Study in Religious Violence”
Focusing on The People’s Temple as a case study, Craig Skrumedi successfully applies findings in a wide range of secondary sources on social identity theory and research on charisma, with consideration of particular exogenous and endogenous factors to better understand the circumstances culminating in the tragic outcome of the 1978 mass suicide in Guyana. In doing so Skrumedi presents a compelling argument against popular simplistic accounts of New Religious Movements as cults populated by brainwashed members bent on destructive and violent behaviour. He provides a clearly stated and theoretically well-situated account of the particular and dynamically interrelated factors which became the perfect storm compelling so many in the group to end their lives.
• Undergraduate Award
1st Prize $300.00
Jonathan Harper, BA Program, University of Calgary
“Scholastic Defiance: Paul Mus’s Life’s Work Reconsidered”
This paper on the life and academic positioning of Paul Mus is an example of mature writing that clearly indicates an understanding of the intersections of the historical, the philosophical, and the sociological context and contribution of Mus. The writer skillfully balances and transitions between several threads of information and locations of analyses. There is a confidence in the correction of earlier approaches to Mus’ work without any hint of condescension on the part of the writer; on the contrary, the suggestions for further research to be conducted suggests a keen willingness to “get the man right” rather than to “be right” and suggests a sensitivity to the man but also to the accuracy of academia. The ability to synthesize numerous strands of data and analyses within such a short paper makes for a delightful read worthy of publication.
2nd Prize $100.00
Roxanne Korpan, BA Program, University of Regina
“I say this…to promote seemliness: Sex and Ethics in Rom 1:18-2:16, 1 Cor 7 , 1 Cor 11:2-16″
This paper, arguing that Paul’s writings reveal a “masculinising agenda” at the same time as envisioning the ideal as the primal androgyne, is sophisticated in its quality of writing and shows the writer’s confidence in her/his material and depth of analysis. Paul’s writings indicate a man quite concerned with the natural order of heaven and earth, which nicely positions the writer to argue that his proclamations about women’s and men’s roles in society and church were guided by an aversion to men being effeminised and women masculinized, in effect performing outside the natural order. Refreshingly, the writer does not use this position to either demonise or sanctify Paul, but rather simply chooses to let the data speak for itself, i.e., that Paul both reflected and promoted the hierarchical and masculinized social structure of his times.
▷2011-2012
• Graduate Award
1st Prize $700.00
“The Presentation of the Charismatic Self in Everyday Life: Reflections on a Canadian New Religious Movement”
Paul Joosse, PhD candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta
2nd Prize $300.00
“Riddles From the Margins of the Strange Sex: The Wisdom of Solomon’s Judgment Story (1 Kgs 3:16-28)”
Lauren Chomyn, MA Student, University of Alberta
• Undergraduate Award
1st Prize $300.00
“An Insult to National Honour: Investigating Canadian Public Perception of the Shafia Trial”
Sarah Moselle, University of Victoria, Victoria BC
2nd Prize $100.00
“Historical Jesuses”
Steven Haines, Carleton University
▷2010-2011
• Graduate Award
1st prize – Yasaman S. Munro. 2nd prize — Ryan Olfert.
• Undergraduate Award
1st prize — Martina Moreau. 2nd prize – Dakin McDonald
▷2009-2010
• Graduate Award
No PhD prize was awarded.
MA award: Tenzan Eaghll, (University of Calgary), for “From Pietism to Romanticism: The early life and work of Friedrich Schleiermacher.”
• Undergraduate Award
No undergraduate prize was awarded.
▷2008-2009
• Graduate Award
Amarnath Amarasingam (Wilfrid Laurier/University of Waterloo), first-prize winner, for “Religion and Ethnicity among Tamil Youth in Ontario”
Matt Sheedy (University of Manitoba), second-prize winner, for “Religion in the Public Sphere: The limits of Habermas’ proposal and the discourse of ‘world religions.’”
• Undergraduate Award
Dakin McDonald (Acadia University), winner of the undergrad contest, for “Re-considering the Utility of Goddesses in Religious Feminism: An examination of Candomble in relation to hierarchal theism and egalitarian nontheism”
Raymond Taylor (University of Waterloo) runner-up of the undergrad contest, for “Children Dining at the Lord’s Table: A sociological analysis of Mennonite communion”
▷2007-2008
• Graduate Award
Francis Landy announced that there were 20 entries in the Graduate Essay
Competition. First place in the competition was shared this year between Joel Buenting of the Dept. of Philosophy of the University of Alberta, whose paper was entitled “Can someone choose hell?” and Matthew King of the University of Toronto, for his essay “Ideological Geography and Narrative Work of a Peripheral Buddhist History.”
Landy requested special commendation of the following essays:
Meredith Warren (McGill University) “Honeycomb and Transformation: the Role of Food in Joseph and Aseneth.”
Aaron Rick Parks (McGill University) “The Greco-Roman Rhetorical Foreign Tyrant and Mark 10: 42.”
• Undergraduate Award
David Feltmate reportedthat the Undergraduate Essay Contest received twenty-five submissions in 2008,two papers were disqualified because of length and one other was disqualified because it was submitted by a high school student.
First prize was awarded to David Joubet-LeClercof Bishop’s University for his paper “Christianity’s Trial: Christian Heresiology from the first to the third century CE.” Jennifer Baker of Wilfrid Laurier University was the runner up with her paper entitled “Incorporating all Conversion Motivations: Exploring the ‘Crisis Stage’ of Religious Conversion.” Congratulations to both David and Jennifer for these excellent papers!
▷2006-2007
• Graduate Award
Leona Anderson reported that she received three submissions for the Graduate essay competition. She recommended that no award be given this year.
• Undergraduate Award
1st prize : Gabriel Jones (Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa): “Gender Equivalence, Samkhya and Mahadevi.” Runner Up : Brynna Hambly (Department of Religious Studies, University of Calgary) “The Manufacturing of Saints in Early Christian Homiletic and Martyrological Literature”
▷2005-2006
• Graduate Award
Brian Carwana (WLU): ‘The Institute of Canadian Values conference: How the Canadian Religious Right Adopts Secularism to fight Secularism’. Special mention was extended to Paul Josse (Alberta) and Tristan Sturm (Carleton).
• Undergraduate Award
1st prize: Hannah McGregor (Carleton): ‘Word Made Flesh: A Study of Eucharistic Thought in the Fourth Gospel’ 2nd prize: Ardith Bailey (UBC): ‘This Mortal Body, These Mortal Flames.’ Runner Up: Mordecai Walfish (U King’s College): ‘Derrida’s Jewish Penis: Looking Beneath the Foreskin of Jaques Derrida’s Circumfession’.
▷2004-2005
• Graduate Award
The graduate essays were judged by Faydra Shapiro. Karen Cheatham, University of Toronto, won the award with “Bodily Barriers Conceptualized: Rupert of Deutz and the Virginal Male Body.” We had 23 submissions this year.
• Undergraduate Award
The undergraduate essays were judged by Aaron Hughes. Adriana Woodburn, University of Toronto, won the award with “Women in Early Eastern Christian Asceticism.” The runner-up was Deborah Stanbury, Wilfrid Laurier, with “Ground Zero As Sacred Space.” We had 12 submissions this year.
▷2003-2004
• Graduate Award
Juschka reported that there were three submissions. Sarah Parkes Ricker won; she will attend next year’s Congress with the available travel funds. Bill Arnal and Yuan Ren also read the papers submitted.
• Undergraduate Award
Hughes reported that a total of five essays were received: Two from Concordia, one from Wilfrid Laurier, another from York, and a final one from Dalhousie. The winner is Sohrob Nabatian from Concordia, “The Use of Eastern Spirituality in the Marketing of Tea.” It was sponsored by Leslie Orr.
▷2002-2003
• Graduate Award
• Undergraduate Award
▷2001-2002
• Graduate Award
As reported in the April Bulletin, there were nine papers submitted for the 2002 contest. The winner of the graduate student essay contest was Jane Barter, Emmanuel College with her paper on “Wittgenstein and Feminist Hermeneutics.” Congratulations, Jane.
• Undergraduate Award
Fourteen papers were submitted for the undergraduate student contest in 2002, adjudicated by Terry Woo, Andre Maintenay and Kenneth MacKendrick. 1st place went to Gord Cruess (University of Toronto) for an extraordinary paper on “Buddhist Political History in Sri Lanka and the Rise of Modern Sinhalese Nationalism.” 2nd place went to Sohrob Nabatian (Concordia University) for “Cosmogony and Transcendence in Nasadiya Sukta and Purusa Sukta”. Congratulations to both Sohrob and Nasadiya.
▷2000-2001
• Graduate Award
• Undergraduate Award
▷1999-2000
• Graduate Award
The winning essay was written by Michael McClary Ostling, from the University of Toronto for his paper, “Be Kind to the Antichrist: Millenarianism and Religious Tolerance in the Edict of Pskov”. Committee Chair D. McCance wrote that this work was “a conceptually and stylistically sophisticated study of two important areas of religious scholarship, undertaken through contextualized exegesis of a single line found in a somewhat obscure sixteenth century royal proclamation, the Edict of Pskov. This is a well- documented essay. The writer knows well, and works well, with relevant primary and secondary sources, and is also able to make his historical study relevant to the questions of millenarianism and religious tolerance
today.”
• Undergraduate Award
The first prize for the undergraduate contest was awarded to University of Calgary student Lincoln Blumell, for an essay entitled “The Zealots, Villains or Victims?”
Second prize went to another University of Calgary student, Nathan Gibbard, for his paper entitled “The Vatican’s Response to Latin American Liberation Theology.”
▷1998-1999
• Graduate Award
Roy reported that there were only two submissions, one in French and one in English. One paper was from her own institution and so she asked Seljak to look at both papers. One was on the psychotherapy of spirituality and the other on the concept of sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible. She could not recommend either paper for the prize. While both were good papers, neither were of the outstanding quality that the Society calls for in this contest.
• Undergraduate Award
First Prize: “An Exploration of Jack Kerouac’s Buddhism: Text and Life” by Sarah Haynes, Wilfrid Laurier University. A detailed and subtle examination of Kerouac’s Buddhism, reading his texts in light of his life’s experiences. The paper was sponsored by Dr. Kay Koppedrayer.
Second Prize: “Encountering the Infinite: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas,” by Benjamin Lyle Berger, University of Alberta. A well written, well argued examination of the theoretical implications of kabbalistic interpretations of the Torah as viewed through the lens of Levinas’ thought. The paper was sponsored by Dr. Ehud Ben Zvi. An honorable mention was given to Piotr S. Bobkowski.
▷1997-1998
• Graduate Award
Fabien Richard from Laval University won this award for his essay entitled “La gnose au
Québec: ouverture sur un exemple: women’s conversions to the United Church.”
• Undergraduate Award
The first prize of $200 was awarded to Brian Fleming from the University of Regina, for his essay entitled “Puja and the Domestic Dimension of the Ganesh Cathurti Festival: Confronting the Divine in Hinduism.” The second prize went to Trevor Robertson from the University of Regina for his essay entitled “The Brainwashing Hypothesis and Symbolic Freedom.”
▷1996-1997
• Graduate Award
Randi Warne reported that three essays were submitted, all in English from female M. A. students. Two submissions were from Concordia and one from Memorial. All essays were competently executed, but the winning essay was exceptional for its facility of expression and ability to argue a bold hypothesis effectively. Corinne C. Walsh will receive the graduate student essay prize of $500 for her essay “Envisioning a Different History: A New Understanding of the Chronology of the Johannine Writings and the History of the Johannine Community.” A copy of the letter sent to Ms. Walsh will be forwarded to Jordan Paper with Ms. Walsh’s address so that a cheque may be issued to her.
• Undergraduate Award
Pierre Boucher reported that twenty-six essays were submitted, twenty in English, six in French. There were many excellent submissions, across a very broad spectrum of topics. The diversity and quality of the essays made the decision a difficult one. Chris Klassen of St. Jerome’s College (Waterloo) will receive the first prize of $200 for the essay “The Effects of the Meiji Restoration on Japanese Religion.” Benjamin Fleming will receive the second prize for his essay “Hajj Murals and Their Context.” All are congratulated by the Society for their superior accomplishments.
▷1995-1996
• Graduate Award
Marsha Hewitt reported that she had received 4 submissions, one in French. Braj Sinha helped in the selection of the winning essay, which was “Zarathustrianism: A Reform for Religion and Society” by Aptin Khanbaghi (McGill). The Treasurer will send a check to Khanbaghi for $500, and a letter of congratulations will be sent by the Graduate Essay judge (Hewitt). Letters of notification will also be sent by Hewitt to the other entrants.
• Undergraduate Award
Pierre Boucher sent a written report about the undergraduate essay contest. Response was excellent—32 papers were received; 27 in English, and 5 in French, though none of the latter were from Quebec. Three papers were rejected. The winning essay was by Sharon Trofimuk (Queen’s), for “The Globe and Mail During the Holidays: Religiously Indifferent and a Bit Sloppy.” The Treasurer will send a check for $200 to Trofimuk. Boucher also reported an “honorable mention” for Carla Sorbana’s (McGill) excellent paper “Asceticism and Apathy in Augustine’s Confessions and Beckett’s First Love.” On the basis of the quality and number of undergraduate submissions, it was suggested that a second prize of $100 be established. The matter will be referred to the AGM.