Chris Lane
Student receives 2013 Trudeau Scholarship to advance new ideas in food security
A UBC student is one of 14 recipients of the 2013 Trudeau Foundation Scholarship, worth $180,000 over three years.
Sophia Murphy will begin working on her PhD this fall in resource management and environmental studies.
Murphy, who lives in Squamish, B.C., has 20 years of work experience in food security, trade, and agricultural development.
She says wants her work to help nations protect and promote the human right to food.
“Food security gets tackled from lots of different angles,” she says. “I’m trying to pull together these different ways of thinking about the problem, to help build food systems that support food sovereignty.”
Murphy hopes to emphasize sustainability as a tenet of food policy. “In an era of climate change, we need to bring new ways of seeing the economy into practice,” she said.
Since 2003, 19 UBC students have been named Scholars. The Trudeau Foundation provides financial support for research and promotes dialogue by connecting researchers across Canada. Murphy says she is looking forward to learning from Trudeau fellows and mentors who are advancing knowledge about human rights, responsible citizenship and the environment.
Murphy has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics, she has lived in six countries, and has worked with Canadian and international nongovernmental organizations. She works as a consultant and is a senior advisor to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s Trade and Global Governance Program. She also serves on the board of ActionAid USA and is a project team member of the United Nations High Level Panel of Experts to the Committee on World Food Security.
Two UBC alumni were also awarded 2013 Trudeau Scholarships. Robyn Sneath (BEd, 2011) is at Oxford University studying the history of Mennonites in Canada and is focusing on how their community has come into conflict with government education policies, while David Morgan (MA, 2011) is at Dalhousie University, listening to survivors of armed conflict to learn how their experiences can hold lessons for keeping civilians safe in conflict zones.
For more information about Murphy and the 2013 Trudeau Scholarships, visit: www.fondationtrudeau.ca/en/community/sophia-murphy
Past UBC Trudeau Scholars
- Daniel Werb, 2012 Trudeau scholar, Epidemiology
- Lara Rosenoff Gauvin, 2011 Trudeau scholar, Anthropology
- Mark Lawrence Santiago, 2009 Trudeau scholar, Geography
- Laura Madokoro, 2009 Trudeau scholar, History
- Tamil Kendall, 2009 Trudeau scholar, Interdisciplinary Studies
- Shauna Labman, 2008 Trudeau scholar, Law
- Christopher Tenove, 2008 Trudeau scholar, Political Science
- Lilia Yumagulova, 2008 Trudeau scholar, Planning
- Alexander Aylett, 2007 Trudeau scholar, Geography
- Jessica Dempsey, 2007 Trudeau scholar, Geography
- Kristi Kenyon, 2007 Trudeau scholar, Political Science
- Rajdeep Singh Gill, 2006 Trudeau scholar, Interdisciplinary Studies
- Kate Hennessy, 2006 Trudeau scholar, Anthropology
- Fiona Kelly, 2005 Trudeau scholar, Law
- David R. Boyd, 2005 Trudeau scholar, Resource Management and Environmental Studies
- Aliette Frank, 2005 Trudeau scholar, Interdisciplinary Studies
- Karen Rideout, 2004 Trudeau scholar, Land and Food Systems
- Ginger Gibson, 2003 Trudeau scholar, Mining Engineering Applied Sciences
