The below is an excerpt from the October 18 YFile. Read the full article here.
LA&PS Award for Distinction in Research, Creativity or Scholarship
“This year’s winners embody the insatiable quest of true scholars to continuously pose new questions and as well, to serve as public intellectuals on critical contemporary questions,” said Mukherjee-Reed. “It is an honour to count among our colleagues this year’s winners, Professors Jonathan Edmondson and Boyd Cothran, both from the Department of History.”
Jonathan Edmondson
Edmondson, Department of History Chair, received the LA&PS Award for Distinction in Research, Creativity or Scholarship in the Established Researcher category. He is world-renowned as an expert on the Roman Empire, Roman inscriptions and Roman social history. His body of work, as well as his strong commitment to sharing his research, has shed light on the Roman world for scholars, students and the public.
“I’m excited about my research on the Roman Empire, especially Roman Spain, because it’s given me access to a range of new monuments with inscriptions, previously unpublished, that have the potential to throw new light on the impact of Rome on Indigenous societies,” said Edmondson. “Although people have been studying the Roman Empire for centuries, we can always pose new questions about, and gain fresh insights into, the Roman world.”
Boyd Cothran
Cothran, a history professor, was honoured in the Emerging Researcher category. He will be presented with his award in the Winter 2017 semester. Since earning his PhD four years ago, he has achieved an outstanding record of scholarly research in the growing field of Indigenous history. His work, shared in both academic and public venues, is reframing the U.S. narrative and places Indigenous history at its centre.
“What excites me the most about the growing field of Indigenous history is how we are rewriting the history of North America by reclaiming the central role Indigenous peoples have played in the development of our shared society,” said Cothran. “For too long, historians wrote histories of North America that ignored Indigenous people, denying them a history and by extension a future. Indigenous history is an exciting field because every day it seems like there are new stories being discovered and new perspectives on old subjects being shared.”