JEFF BELL
Times Colonist
University of Victoria
ethnobotanist Nancy Turner will receive $225,000 over the next three
years to study traditional plant use by First Nations groups, especially
those in the western part of North America.
Turner’s research will look at ethnobotany and ethnoecology as a means of supporting indigenous land claims.
She
is one of five Canadian scholars to receive a 2015 research fellowship
from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, an independent and
non-partisan charity established in 2001 in memory of the former prime
minister.
It was endowed in 2002 by the federal government with
the Advanced Research in the Humanities and Human Sciences Fund, and
also receives private donations.
Turner, who is retiring as a professor next July after 25 years at UVic, called the fellowship “a really special honour.”
“It’s
kind of a nice culmination of my work here at UVic,” Turner said. “I’ve
just loved this work. I’ve taught lots of courses and had a lot of
graduate students and a lot of collaborative research with First
Nations.”
Previous UVic recipients include law professors Jeremy Webber (2009), John Borrows (2006) and Jim Tully (2003).
The
Trudeau fellowships were created in 2003 to inspire originality and
innovation in research that might not be funded in traditional ways.
Winners are nominated by their peers, with selections being made by an
independent panel.
Other recipients are Jocelyn Downie of
Dalhousie University (assisted suicide and related issues), Bessma
Momani of the University of Waterloo (Arab-Canadian youth), Rene Provost
of McGill University (the possibility of armed rebels applying justice
in areas of conflict) and Cleo Pascal of the Université de Montreal (the
relationship between Canada and the Indo-Pacific region). All fellows
receive $225,000 over the next three years.
Also earning
recognition for their work at UVic are Joan MacLeod, Frank van Veggel
and James O. Young, who have been named Fellows of the Royal Society of
Canada.
They are among a group of 87 new fellows who will be
inducted into the academies of the Royal Society of Canada during a Nov.
27 ceremony at the Empress Hotel.
MacLeod is in the department of
writing and is one of Canada’s most celebrated playwrights; van Veggel
is a chemist working in such areas as the study of microscopic
nanoparticles in cancer diagnosis and therapy; and Young is a philosophy
professor whose focus includes philosophy of both art and language.
The
fellows are elected by their peers, with election considered the
highest honour for a Canadian scholar in the arts, humanities and
sciences.
jwbell@timescolonist.com
