Faculty to Be Honoured for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service
Four faculty members are being recognized for their professional achievements at Spring Convocation on May 16.
Dr. Erin Fredericks is the recipient of the John McKendy Memorial Teaching Award, Dr. Janice Harvey is the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Part-Time Teaching, Dr. Kristi Allain is the recipient of the University Scholarship Award, and Dr. Karla O’Regan is the recipient of the University Service Award.
“Through their individual contributions, these faculty have created an outstanding academic community for our students and the wider society. They have demonstrated the high calibre of teaching, research, and service that takes place at St. Thomas University,” said Dr. Kim Fenwick, President and Vice-Chancellor (Acting).
“We are looking forward to celebrating these faculty members at Spring Convocation along with the achievements of our graduates in the Arts, Applied Arts, Social Work, and Mi’kmaq/Maliseet Social Work programs. I speak for our faculty, students, staff, and alumni when I offer congratulations to these professors.”
John McKendy Memorial Teaching Award
Dr. Erin Fredericks is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology. She teaches courses in gender, disease, and health, as well as senior seminars in sociological concepts and healthcare policy. Her scholarly work examines the interconnections between gender and marginalization, representations of health and illness, and health behaviours. Her students know Dr. Fredericks as an accessible and engaging teacher who helps them to thoughtfully apply knowledge and develop critical perspectives. She also mentors students, supervises student researchers, and assists senior students applying to graduate and professional schools. Her teaching aims are to cultivate mutual respect, build skills for critical engagement, use trauma-informed perspectives, and create a community of learning, and through this she creates an “incredible classroom environment”. She believes that learning happens when professors and students think about what silences them and have the conversation they wish society was having—what is difficult to ask? why we feel ashamed when we don’t know? and why we strive for a certainty that is problematic? Her students find her “encouraging, supportive, and kind,” and she reaches out to those who may be struggling, helping them to engage and grow. As the Learning and Teaching Development Officer, she has organized professional learning opportunities to enhance the culture of teaching and learning at STU.
Award for Excellence in Part-Time Teaching
Dr. Janice Harvey is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Environment and Society Program. Her motivation is to instill in students an ethic of ecological citizenship and she is inspired every day by their commitment to a sustainable future. She helps them to understand what is happening to the Earth systems underpinning their social world, why it is happening, and how they can achieve a sustainable future. She inspires enthusiasm in her students who find her classes to be “engaging, relevant and lively”. She teaches courses on understanding environmental problems, perspectives on human-nature relations, climate change, and environmental politics. Harvey’s classroom material is shaped by environmental science, economic, political and cultural dynamics, as well as current events, and is informed by her experience in environmental advocacy work. She has developed several new courses which are now part of the Environment and Society curriculum. She challenges her students with innovative assignments and involves them in larger research projects such as the Plutonium Project which was recently presented at the Student Research and Ideas Fair. She also serves as the faculty advisor for the student group STU Sustainability.
University Scholarship Award
Dr. Kristi Allain is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Canada Research Chair in Physical Culture and Social Life. Her scholarly work examines physical culture and its relationships with Canadian national identity, marginalization, and privilege. It explores the various ways that power operates within physical culture and has a particular focus on how individuals construct, understand, and challenge expressions of gender, ethnicity, race, age, and nation. Her scholarly work has been prodigious as she has published 13 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters, and two reports in recent years, and has three articles and four manuscripts in development or review. Her work has proposed new theoretical frameworks for understanding hockey masculinity and the marginalization of older athletes and is often cited by other scholars. She is committed to communicating her scholarship to wider audiences including scholars, policymakers, and the public. As such, she speaks to the media on subjects such as hockey, curling, and national identity, and has been interviewed by outlets such as The Hockey News, The Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor. She has recently been interviewed by major media outlets in Canada, the UK, and Germany on the Hockey Canada sexual assault cover-up.
University Service Award
Dr. Karla O’Regan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. She teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, and feminist legal studies, and has been STU's Pre-Law Student Advisor since 2003. Her service record includes membership on many Senate, Faculty Association, University, and Student Union committees, as well as two terms on the Board of Governors and five years as Research Ethics Board Chair. Much of her service work has centred on students, including chairing Senate Committees on Student Academic Grievance and Admissions and Academic Standing, and acting as a Complaints Officer under the Harassment and Discrimination Policy. She is a Sexual Violence Policy Adjudicator at UNB and has offered consent workshops for STU students and residence staff for more than fifteen years. O'Regan has worked with the NB Women's Council to provide input on new legislation, is a Research Fellow with the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research, and has collaborated with Sexual Violence NB on several initiatives, including an audit of the Fredericton Police Force’s unfounded sexual assault cases and delivery of trauma-informed training for police and prosecutors.