A University of British Columbia graduate student today was named a 2011 Trudeau Scholar, one of Canada’s most coveted awards for social sciences and humanities graduate students.
Lara Rosenoff, a PhD student studying anthropology at UBC, is among this year’s 14 Trudeau Scholarship recipients. The recipients are each awarded a scholarship of $180,000 for their education and research to examine issues of fundamental importance to Canadians, such as the environment, international affairs, responsible citizenship and human rights.
For her PhD, Rosenoff is studying how violence and displacement in northern Uganda have interrupted the transmission of moral and cultural knowledge between generations. She will examine how extreme human rights abuses in that region have affected kinship and the oral tradition, and what this means for youth and social stability, social reconstruction and social repair.
Born and raised in Montreal, Rosenoff is an artist and curator. She received her BA in Communication Studies from Concordia University in 1998 and worked as a photo documentarian. In 2004, Rosenoff visited northern Uganda to work on a film about the conflicts in that region. This experience led Rosenoff to pursue a MFA in Documentary Media at Ryerson University.
As part of the Trudeau Scholarship Program, Rosenoff will be part of a community of creative and accomplished thinkers and will meet with Trudeau Fellows and Mentors, highly accomplished academic and non-academic leaders.
Committed to public engagement, Rosenoff presents at academic conferences, exhibits her art installations and engages in advocacy efforts. In 2009, she co-initiated “Internally Displaced Person’s Awareness Day” which brought together communities, scholars and artists in a public exhibition in Toronto’s Dundas Square. Rosenoff is also the founder and creator of the Liu Institute for Global Issues’ Lobby Gallery at UBC, and co-founder of UBC’s Transitional Justice Network.
Since the program began in 2003, 17 UBC students have been named Trudeau Scholars.
For more information, visit the Trudeau Foundation.
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