FEDERATION FOR THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Five Canadian Authors Receive Prestigious Canada Prizes Award for Scholarly Books

Ottawa, ON, December 9, 2024 - Five Canadian writers are the recipients of the prestigious Canada Prizes award and $4,000 each in recognition of their inspiring, impactful and transformative scholarly books.

The awards, presented by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences - a national non-profit voice for researchers in the humanities and social sciences in Canada - recognize outstanding authors and works that provoke and inform national conversations on important topics and draw attention to the contribution of scholarship to Canadian society.

"The Canada Prizes celebrate the richness and diversity of Canadian scholarship in the humanities and social sciences," said Karine Morin, President and CEO of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. "We are proud to announce the five recipients of the 2024 Canada Prizes, whose works embody the profound role of the humanities and social sciences in shaping a more inclusive, democratic, and prosperous society."

The awards include at least two prizes for first-time authors, as well as a dedicated prize for French-language books.

The five 2024 Canada Prizes Award winners are:

Deanna Reder, professor of Indigenous Studies and English at Simon Fraser University, for her book entitled Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition: Cree and Métis âcimisowina (published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press). Filling a Canadian literary gap, this unique monograph explores unknown, little known and neglected works by a range of Cree and Métis writers from the 1890s to the 1980s, including Maria Campbell, Edward Ahenakew and James Brady. Contrary to mainstream belief of a limited existence of Indigenous written works that lack autobiographical insight into the authors, the book reveals a rich array of Cree and Métis writings that weave in the authors' life experiences. Using Cree concepts to understand the writings, Reder uncovers texts ranging from journals, manuscripts and sermons, to unfinished, unpublished, censored or limited circulation short stories and novels to shed light on the richness of Indigenous life and philosophies through the words of the authors that go well beyond traditional oral culture. "Through my research, I found that understanding who you are, and who you're related to, is foundational to Indigenous understandings of the world," said Reder, who drew from her own Cree-Métis background and family stories to write this monograph and bring well-deserved scholarly attention to Indigenous authors. "The book provides understudied and undervalued evidence of the longstanding autobiographical practices that are engrained in Cree and Métis, and these life stories serve as an intergenerational conduit to pass on invaluable knowledge."

Stephanie Rutherford, associate professor in the School of the Environment at Trent University, for her book entitled Villain, Vermin, Icon, Kin: Wolves and the Making of Canada (published by McGill-Queen's University Press). Despite Canada having the biggest wolf population in the world, this is the first time anyone has explored the country's social history of wolves. Rutherford's work delves into how Canadians' relationship with - and emotions about - wolves have changed from late the 1800s until present. Early settlers were afraid of wolves and the prospect of being eaten by them, for example. By the 1920s, wolves were perceived as vermin and a rightful target to be eliminated due to their interference with livestock and agriculture. The 1950s saw an emerging trend towards conservation as people began recognizing the value of wolves in maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Today, public anxiety over wolves is high as a result of the growing prevalence of coywolves (coyote-wolf hybrids) in urban areas, while people grapple with how to co-exist with - rather than dominate - wildlife, learning from Indigenous ways. "I undertook this work because I was interested in understanding the level of emotions people feel when it comes to wolves," Rutherford said. "What is it about this animal that generates either deep love or deep hate?" The eye-opening work underscores how Canada was made, in part, through relationships with animals, and offers a model for more ethical ways of interacting with wildlife in the face of a global biodiversity crisis.

Celeste E. Orr, assistant professor of Sociology and the Wendy J. Robbins Professor in Gender & Women's Studies at the University of New Brunswick and first-time author, for their book entitled Cripping Intersex (published by the University of British Columbia Press). This work explores the connection between intersex and disability, dismissing society's common view of intersex people - those whose anatomy doesn't fit into a traditional Western male-female sex binary - as having a disability, disease or disorder that must be cured by medical intervention. Orr points to studies showing that medical procedures done non-consensually on intersex infants or youth often lead to them having short or long-term disabilities, from sterilization and increased infection, to anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. Drawing attention to societal discrimination and oppression against intersex people, Orr argues that people's negative views and actions are rooted in racism, ableism (discrimination against disabled people), queer phobia and colonialism. "My book demonstrates that there is a concerted eugenic effort aimed at eradicating intersex people and intersex variations," Orr said. "The hope is that this work will help combat the ableism that fuels interphobia (discrimination against people who have intersex traits) and contribute to ongoing conversations that will help bring about a more equitable and just world." In addition to investigating medical treatment of intersex people, Cripping Intersex also reviews protocols and policies surrounding sports sex testing and segregation, and preimplantation genetic diagnosis, a reproductive screening technology that can accompany in vitro fertilization to detect "undesirable" characteristics.

Nicholas Cotton, teacher-researcher in literature at Collège Édouard-Montpetit with a doctorate in French-language literature from the Université de Montréal and first-time author, for his book entitled Penser la «pervertibilité» - Avec Jacques Derrida (published by Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal). After combing through more than 80 titles by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who developed the philosophy of deconstruction - a set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning - Cotton explores the notion of "pervertibility," which he found to be a common idea throughout Derrida's writings. With the goal of enabling readers to better understand our world and its history, Cotton is the first to draw on these works from the second half of the 20th century to demonstrate the "perverse" devices of philosophical thought intertwined in the writings. He also sheds light on how the philosopher described "pervertibility" - which takes several forms throughout his works - and the boundaries which Derrida identifies with this textual, ethical, linguistic and performative device, notably. Showing Derrida's literary writing work, making this author not only a philosopher, but a writer, Prof. Cotton analyzes the frequent use in Derrida's writings of expressions such as "perverse effect," "perversity" or "pervert" attesting the fact that this theme runs through his entire repertoire, exploring the link between this notion and psychoanalysis. "My book provides a better understanding of Derrida's thought and style, and how both evolved," Cotton said. "It makes a substantial contribution to current work in literature and philosophy, the fields of knowledge and practice to which the works primarily belong, but also in psychoanalysis and, more generally, to the history of ideas."

Pascal Riendeau, professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough for his book entitled Regards sur le monde. Conflits éthiques et pensées romanesques dans la littérature française contemporaine (published by Les Presses de l'Université Laval). Having noticed, through his readings, that ethical issues play an important role in many late-20th to early-21st century works of fiction, Riendeau set out to analyze texts of five contemporary novelists in order to gain a better understanding of the function of ethics in the literature of our time. The result is this first-of-its-kind book that explores the work of contemporary authors Milan Kundera, Michel Houellebecq, Camille Laurens, Éric Chevillard and Pascal Quignard, focusing on themes, situations and discourses. Despite the significant aesthetic differences in their work, what the five novelists have in common is that they expose the complexity of ethical discourse through the use of fragments and their relevance in literature. Analyzing the different ways in which ethical ideas and concepts transform the narration, Riendeau assesses the works' structure and situations - sometimes funny, sometimes tragic - based on two structuring principles: conflict and reflection. "I'm a literature professor who sincerely believes in the importance of literature - for pleasure, learning and above all, understanding the world," Riendeau said. "I think it's highly relevant to take an interest in all art forms (literature, film, visual arts, etc.) in order to better interpret the state of the world around us."

The Canada Prizes recognize the five best works funded by the Scholarly Book Awards, the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences' book granting program that supports 180 scholarly books each year that make important contributions to the humanities and social sciences in Canada.

Relaunched in November 2024, the Prizes celebrate a range of voices, from first-time authors to established scholars, while championing French and English language works and amplifying a broad scope of perspectives across disciplines, in line with the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences' commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization. The Prizes are independently juried by the Scholarly Book Awards Academic Council.

The Canada Prizes are made possible thanks to the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

More information can be found at https://www.federationhss.ca/en/programs-policy/canada-prizes