IODE Canada

2008 IODE WAR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP WINNER

June 2008

PhD Scholarship Awarded to Carleton University Student Janet McGarth

IODE Canada has awarded an IODE War Memorial Doctoral Scholarship to candidate Janet McGrath. IODE initiated this award in 1918 to commemorate Canadians who sacrificed their lives for peace and freedom. Initially, bursaries were granted to children of men and women who lost their lives or were permanently disabled while fighting for Canada. Today, applicants are judged on academic achievement and potential. They must be Canadian citizens and in at least their second year of a doctoral program at a Canadian or Commonwealth University. Scholarships are valued at $15,000.

Born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Ms McGrath earned a BA at Brock University in 1994, MA at Saint Paul University in 2005 and is presently studying at Carleton University for a joint doctoral degree with the School of Canadian Studies and the Institute of Political Economy. Having grown up in Inuit communities, fluent in Inuktitut, Carleton University was chosen because it has a well established tradition of interdisciplinary research which offers a holistic approach consistent with Inuit cultural values.

Ms McGrath has won several prestigious awards, including two Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Awards and two Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Awards for excellence in scholarship. She has many published articles, translations of elders interviews and has participated in several conferences in Canada and around the world.

A committed volunteer and supporter of Aboriginal and Inuit students, a facilitator on the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, giving on-going family support to FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder), Janet uses her vast creative ability in community theatre and dance and is at home in wilderness tracking, equine rescue and therapeutic riding.

Janet’s dissertation involves understanding the creation and dissemination of knowledge among the Inuit’s, including its elders. Her referees predict that because she is so well-grounded, yet theoretically sophisticated, she has the potential to become a renowned public scholar in the near future.

IODE Canada is proud to support this worthy student with a 2008 IODE War Memorial Scholarship.