Graduate students Aytak Akbari-Dibavar and Jesse Thistle in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies have been awarded the Trudeau Doctoral Scholarship, a prestigious distinction presented by the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation.
It is the first time since 2008 that a York graduate student has been chosen for the scholarship, which recognizes the most talented doctoral students in Canada and abroad studying in the humanities and social sciences.
“Becoming a Trudeau Scholar is an absolutely remarkable achievement – very few students get to enjoy this moment. On behalf of York University and our graduate research community, I want to thank them for their continuing contributions to society,” says Barbara Crow, dean and associate vice-president, Graduate.
In addition to receiving a substantial allowance for research and travel, each scholar is paired with a distinguished Trudeau mentor selected by the foundation among the most eminent Canadian practitioners in all sectors of public life. The annual value is up to $60,000 per scholar (including an annual travel allowance of $20,000) for up to four years. Up to 15 scholarships are awarded annually.
Aytak Akbari-Dibavar, political science
Aytak Akbari-Dibavar
Akbari-Dibavar’s research will investigate the trans-generational transmission of political trauma in authoritarian states where public debate and discussion are impossible.
“My hypothesis is that survivors of state violence transmit their trauma to their children through private, familial mechanisms that cohere to produce a collective political identity in the subsequent generation which is traceable in their organizing and activism,” she notes.
This work will seek to understand how political uprisings – often seen as discrete events – are manifestations of a continuity in the historical experience of trauma.
Her proposed thesis “Politics of Survival: Trans-generational Transmission of Political Trauma in Authoritarian States” will seek to create an alternative historical archive that can lay the groundwork for a truth and reconciliation process in countries where trauma and political oppression are ongoing. The archive would also include Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation process with Indigenous and First Nations people.
In a volunteer capacity, Akbari-Dibavar has served as both a student success leader and peer advisor on campus, in addition to working with the York Centre for Refugee Studies. She also volunteers with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture and Violence (CCVT), helping refugees and survivors adapt to life in Canada.
Jesse Thistle, history
Jesse Thistle
Thistle’s proposed thesis “Indigence, Invisibility, and Indifference: Métis Life in Road Allowance Communities on the Canadian Prairies” focuses on Indigenous narrative, memory, and storytelling as a way to rediscover history and identity. Centered on intergenerational trauma in Métis-Cree in the northern Great Plains, Thistle has built an oral history archive, a photo journal, and preserved community stories for posterity.
“My work on trauma is geared towards Indigenous community healing and moving forward; I do not study trauma for the spectacle of it, I want to understand trauma and help people recover identity and move forward in a good way, towards reconciliation,” he says.
“The goal of my research is to make Canadians aware of Métis road allowance history on the prairies in the 20th century. Most people I have talked to across the country do not even know what a road allowance community was, when they existed, and who lived on them. I want to change that. I want people to better understand this chapter in Métis history, to make people see the resilience of my people.”
The work is very personal for Thistle. Looking at his own family history dating back to after the Riel Resistances of 1869 and 1885, it is his hope to bring about greater understanding of impacts experienced by the Métis people to better inform how future generations can fight against, heal and overcome trauma.
Thistle says that winning the Trudeau opens many doors for him in terms of research support, travel and connecting with top scholars in the country – noting community as the true value of the award.
“In all, I guess I will keep doing what I am doing with my own Métis-Cree community and friends in Saskatchewan and Ontario, and I will keep writing my crazy stories and histories with my cat and wife Lucie by my side. And I know I will keep visiting and working with Randy, Nancy, and Jolene up at the Centre for Aboriginal Student Services (CASS). Those people work magic, truly. Go check them out. CASS helped make me into the person and scholar I am today – York is lucky to have such an Indigenous centre with such experts,” he says.
The Foundation
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is an independent and non-partisan charity established in 2001 as a living memorial to the former prime minister by his family, friends, and colleagues. By granting doctoral scholarships, awarding fellowships, appointing mentors, and holding public events, the foundation encourages critical reflection and action in four areas important to Canadians: human rights and dignity, responsible citizenship, Canada’s role in the world, and people and their natural environment.