A Governor General’s Gold Medal was awarded to Rebecca Hall, who graduated with a PhD in Political Science from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. The medal is the most prestigious recognition presented to graduate students for achieving the highest academic standing. Two other York students received this award as well, Miranda DiLorenzo and Tamas Nagypal.
“The Governor General’s Gold Medals are an academic distinction that celebrates the very highest level of scholarly excellence in Canada,” said Rhonda L. Lenton, York University president and vice-chancellor. “On behalf of all of us at the University, I am delighted to congratulate Miranda, Rebecca and Tamas on their achievement, which truly is a testament to their hard work, dedication and passion, as well as the impact they have made during their time at York.”
Rebecca Hall
Hall holds a PhD in Political Science from York University. She takes a feminist political economy approach to questions related to Indigenous/Canadian state relations, resource extraction and gender-based violence. Hall’s scholarly publications have examined multiple sites of contemporary de/colonizing struggle in Canada, including resource extraction, property relations, caring labours and interpersonal violence.
She is the recipient of the prestigious Mary McEwan Memorial Award for feminist research for her dissertation titled, Diamonds are Forever: a decolonizing, feminist approach to diamond mining in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, which takes a feminist political economy approach to the impact of the northern diamond mining industry on Indigenous women. It reveals the ways in which Dene, Métis, and Inuit women’s labours that contribute to the social reproduction of their kin and communities have been both a site of colonial restructuring towards the demands of extractive capital, and of decolonizing resistance.
In July, Hall will take up an appointment as assistant professor in the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen’s University.
More about the Governor General’s Academic Medals
Lord Dufferin, Canada’s third governor general after Confederation, created the academic medals in 1873 to encourage academic excellence across the nation. Over the years, they have become the most prestigious award that students in Canadian schools can receive.
The Governor General’s Academic Medals are awarded at four distinct levels: Bronze at the secondary school level; Collegiate Bronze at the post-secondary, diploma level; Silver at the undergraduate level; and Gold at the graduate level. Medals are presented on behalf of the governor general by participating educational institutions, along with personalized certificates signed by the governor general. There is no monetary award associated with the medal. (Source: the official website of the Governor General of Canada.)