FEDERATION FOR THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Five Canadian Books Awarded Prestigious 2026 Canada Prize

Five Canadian books, authored by seven Canadian writers, have been awarded the prestigious 2026 Canada Prizes. In recognition of their inspiring, impactful, and transformative contributions, each winning title will receive a $4,000 prize.

The Prizes, presented by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences - a national non-profit organization advancing scholars and leaders in the humanities and social sciences in Canada - were presented to the winners in a ceremony at the Big Thinking Summit: Inflection Point in Edmonton on June 10. They 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.

"At a time when many of the questions before us demand deeper context and more careful attention, these books show the indispensable value of humanities and social sciences scholarship," said Karine Morin, President and CEO of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, in congratulating the winners. "The 2026 Canada Prizes winners have produced works of extraordinary depth and public relevance, helping readers better understand the forces that shape our histories and shared future."

The Prizes - made possible thanks to the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) - 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 2026 Canada Prizes Award winners are:

Marie-Ève Bradette, assistant professor in the Department of Literature, Theatre, and Film at Université Laval and Chair of Leadership in Teaching Indigenous Literatures in Quebec, for her book Langue(s) en portage: Résurgence littéraire et langagière dans les écritures autochtones féminines (Language(s) in Transition: Literary and Linguistic Resurgence in Indigenous Women's Writing). Ten years in the making, this work is one of the first to explore and compare literary works of contemporary Indigenous women in both French and English, written in French. At a time when Indigenous languages risk extinction, Bradette's work demonstrates how these writings - by authors such as Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Marie-Andrée Gill, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, and Cherie Dimaline - contribute to the revitalization of Indigenous knowledges and linguistics. Whether through novels, poetry, short stories or non-fiction, the book argues that Indigenous women writers are theorists of language by bringing back Indigenous epistemologies through figures of speech, literary imagination and intersecting themes of body, land and spirituality. "The main question I grappled with was how Indigenous women writers negotiate with languages in their work when they don't speak, have lost that language to colonial languages like French and English, or are in the process of relearning it," said Bradette, a settler Francophone who through her research developed a self-described fascination for the representation of Indigenous languages in literature and appreciation for the lens through which Indigenous people view the physical and spiritual world. She explained that throughout history, Indigenous women kept the language alive by orally transmitting stories and culture to their children, and now contemporary Indigenous female authors have reinvented those traditional roles and through contemporary literature, continue to be keepers of the language. "Not only does this book open a window to Indigenous literary works and different ways of thinking about the colonial land in which we live, but it can also offer tools - for teachers or any others - on how to engage with Indigenous literatures in a respectful, thoughtful and relational way," Bradette said.

Éléna Choquette, an associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, for her book Land and the Liberal Project: Canada's Violent Expansion. This unique work - based on historical archival research - explores the territorial making of Canada over the nearly 30-year period after the Confederation of 1867. Gathering insights from personal correspondence between government officials, heads of expeditions and military personnel, as well as Parliamentary transcripts, it reveals how Canada's rapid geographic expansion - from a small nation spanning the St. Lawrence River, Atlantic provinces and northern Great Lakes, to becoming the world's second largest country - was built on forceful appropriation of Indigenous lands rather than the gentle absorption the dominion purported to favour. "The questions driving my book are how it was possible to take over lands so quickly from Indigenous peoples who inhabited them from time immemorial, and how the ideas underlying the expansion have impacted Canada territorially and politically to this day," said Choquette, who is of French settler descent. "What struck me as interesting and surprising was how clear it was that the project of expansionism was made in the name of liberalism -  supporting principles such as liberty, self-government, and the importance of maintaining peace and private property - which became Canada's main ideology in the late19th and early 20th centuries and continues to be foundational to the country today," she said. To this end, she noted that violence was legitimized as a way to "improve" Indigenous territory and people. With the goal of having Canadians rethink their relationship to the land and state-Indigenous relations, this book encourages readers to look at today's liberal ideologies through a different lens. "Most of us in Canada are immigrants, and I think it's the responsibility of every Canadian, whatever their background, to understand the country's ancestral history so that we can repair past injustices and ensure a more equitable and sustainable future," she said.

Daniel Coleman, a professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Ki'en Debicki, an associate professor in the Departments of English and Cultural Studies and Indigenous Studies at McMaster University, and Bonnie M. Freeman, an associate professor in the School of Social Work and Indigenous Studies at McMaster University, all of whom are also associate professors at Six Nations Polytechnic, for their book Deyohahá:ge:: Sharing the River of Life. A compilation of stories by Six Nations members and their neighbours, this enlightening work demonstrates how Indigenous ways of being have always fostered peace, friendship and respect, and how we can apply this knowledge to live harmoniously with others today. It builds on the concept of deyohahá:ge: - meaning two paths in the Cayuga language - which is the foundation of the Two Row Wampum, a 1613 treaty between the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Dutch that embodies the principle of sharing the river of life through peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, and non-interference in each other's cultures, beliefs, and laws. Wampum refers to beaded belts used by northeastern Indigenous people to record treaties, histories, and cultural traditions. "For the Haudenosaunee people, the stories and knowledge of Wampum have been passed down from generation to generation, so we've always lived these philosophies, but for non-Indigenous people, many of these teachings have been lost, so we're trying to revive them through this book," said Freeman, a Six Nations member. She emphasized that central to Indigenous knowledge is listening to the natural environment - the water and land - "which have a language of their own that teaches us how to live." The book's writers delve into the eco-philosophy, legal evolution, and ethical protocols of two-path peacemaking. "Many Canadians have this sense of unease regarding our relationship with our Indigenous neighbours," said Coleman, a settler. "By reinvestigating this early agreement, which still exists today, we realize that the origin of our relationship was not warfare and genocide - it was the effort to build peace, friendship and respect. The Two Row thinking reorients people to respect the environment, and better understand where they live, what their country is about, and what kind of relationship their community can have with people who have been here from time immemorial," he said.

Dominique Garand, a professor in the Department of Literary Studies at l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and member of the Centre for Interuniversity Research on Literature and Culture in Quebec (CRILCQ), for his book Anthologie du pamphlet et de la polémique au Québec de 1800 à 2000 (Anthology of Pamphlets and Polemics in Quebec from 1800 to 2000). This eye-opening and entertaining work is the first anthology of polemical writing in Quebec, shining a light on the major ideological divides and disputing perspectives that existed in the province during that period - in areas from politics and religion to literature and the arts. "There's a misconception among Quebecers that we've always had a tendency to shy away from controversy, but that's not true," Garand said. He explained that this book provides evidence that communication tactics - ranging from subtle irony and playful caricature to direct expressions of hate - were consistently used to publicly denounce, condemn, attack, and insult opposing opinions, at times violently. Showcasing nearly 140 texts from Quebec authors, politicians and other public figures across gender and political lines, the anthology demonstrates that while the writers' ideas and leanings varied throughout the years, they shared the same conviction that one must not remain silent in the face of what is deemed to be offensive. "The book provides a solid introduction to the history of social tensions and limits of violent expression during those two centuries that revolve around ways of being, attitudes, moral values and everything by which people identify themselves, including their social class, ethnic identity, religion, and profession," Garand said. Interestingly, he noted that despite the clashes, the writers in earlier periods were able to move on in a respectful way and agree to disagree, contrary to what he said we're currently seeing with social media escalating conflicts and permanently fracturing relationships. "Many people today have a life-or-death attitude that their ideas must win," he said. "There's a freedom that we seem to have lost in the expression of ideas compared to the past, but that said, deafness to alternative perspectives has always existed."

Marianne-Sarah Saulnier, associate professor at the Institute for Feminist Research and Studies at UQAM and a researcher at the Quebec Observatory on Inequalities, for her book Les femmes cobra : La danse comme espace de transgression des normes de genre au Rajasthan (Cobra Women: Dance as a Space for Transgressing Gender Norms in Rajasthan). This eye-opening book examines the transformation of gender norms within marginalized communities in Rajasthan, India, where women's roles have shifted significantly over the last 25 years - from being restricted to the home, to becoming the sole bread winners of their families as Cobra dancers after their husbands' work as snake charmers was banned by the government. Imitating movements of the cobras their husbands used to work with, the Cobra dancers have soared in popularity among tourists and audiences at home and abroad, resulting in women being confronted with both new constraints and opportunities, navigating complex and often ambivalent forms of empowerment. "With this gender transformation, women now have greater economic agency within their community, yet many must also contend with the persistence of traditional expectations, taking care of the kids and home starting early in the morning, and then dancing until late at night within households where roles and expectations are being renegotiated in uneven ways," said Saulnier, who spent three years immersed in Rajasthan communities to conduct her study with the support of three local Cobra dancers who acted as peer researchers. The result is a book rich in recorded experiences of local Cobra women (from towns, slums and the desert) that give a voice to their struggle to respect themselves, their children and their bodies (some of which have been forced into prostitution to secure dancing jobs) while also highlighting the ways they navigate and reclaim forms of power through dance. "This raises an important question: how should we understand this form of power? The book approaches it as a complex and evolving process, showing how power is experienced, negotiated, and redefined in everyday life,'' said Saulnier. She found herself inspired by the strength of these women and identified a silver lining as well. "The women are almost forced to dance because the whole economy relies on them, but for the next generation, it has opened the door to the idea that it's conceivable for women to work and participate in the public sphere beyond dancing," she said.