Five Scholars Awarded Scholarships for Northern Research
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2025-2026 ACUNS Awards Program. Supported by donors, the annual awards are presented to top scholars in Canadian universities who are conducting research in the natural and social sciences, humanities, health, and interdisciplinary studies.
Interest in and concern about the north has increased greatly in 2025, and ACUNS-affiliated researchers across Canada continue their critical research while mentoring the next generation of northern scholars. Five graduate student researchers are the recipients of the 2025 Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS) Awards. Now in its 43rd year, the ACUNS Awards Program continues to be proud to help Canadian Northern Studies students undertake cutting edge research in the North.
Join us in congratulating these worthy recipients!
Camille Slack
PhD Candidate
Geography
University of Ottawa
Project: Infrastructure Development and Community Food Security in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region: Impacts of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway
While some research exists on road development impacts within the global Indigenous context, the effects of new roads on Indigenous communities in the Arctic remain largely underexplored. This research addresses this gap through a collaborative case study of Tuktoyaktuk, a hamlet in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region that gained all-season road access with the 2017 opening of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH). Drawing on transcripts from community focus groups (2018), interviews (2020, 2023, 2025), and consultation (2023), alongside data from an on-going household survey (2025), we explore local perspectives concerning the ITH’s impacts on food, harvesting, travel, and wellbeing.
Camille Slack is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Ottawa, where she researches the connections between infrastructure development and Indigenous food security in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, focusing on the role of roads and agents of change. She is grateful to work and learn alongside community partners in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, as a central part of her research.
Pénélope Gervais
PhD Candidate, Geography
University of Ottawa
Project: Climate-Driven Changes in Glacial Hydrology and Their Effects on Fiord and Valley Dynamics on Southern Baffin Island
Arctic temperatures are rising four times faster than the global average, accelerating glacier loss across the Canadian Arctic and impacting surrounding ecosystems. My project focuses on glaciers draining the Penny Ice Cap on southern Baffin Island, exploring how meltwater, icebergs, and sediments shape fiord and valley hydrology, with implications for nearby communities.
Using combined fieldwork and remote sensing methods, two fiords are compared: Coronation, where a glacier still reaches the ocean, and Maktak, where the glacier has retreated onto land. In-situ measurements from conductivity-temperature-depth casts and drone-based surveys, combined with Landsat 8–9 imagery, help capture freshwater inflow, turbidity, and the extent of sediment-rich plumes through time. Glacier velocity data supports estimates of calving rates and iceberg discharge, while drone-derived 3D models quantify elevation and volume change at Coronation Glacier’s terminus. Further east, in Akshayuk Pass, drone surveys of moraine-dammed lakes are paired with radar data to investigate moraine stability. Historical air photos, satellite imagery, and elevation models will also be used to assess lake expansion and identify potential flood pathways from such lakes.
Pénélope completed her Honours Bachelor of Arts in Geography at the University of Ottawa in May 2022. Her interest in glaciology began during field courses in Svalbard and Iceland, inspiring her to pursue graduate studies. She earned her MSc in Geography under the supervision of Dr. Luke Copland in August 2024, focusing on the impacts of increased surface melt on supraglacial drainage systems across Ellesmere Island. Her research provided the first spatiotemporal quantification of these features in the Northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
Now a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Luke Copland and Dr. Karen Alley, Pénélope is studying glacier driven hydrological changes in the Qikiqtarjuaq region of Baffin Island.
This scholarship is named for Dr. Blake, the late quaternary geologist who spent over 50 Arctic seasons in Canada, Greenland, and Svalbard, Norway and whose career was spent almost entirely at the Geological Survey of Canada.
The Dr. Jim McDonald Scholarship for Northern Research ($5,000)
Funded by ACUNS with the support of the McDonald family.
Vanessa Udy
PhD Candidate, Law & Society
University of Victoria
Project: Aan Yátxʼi Sáani (Little Children of the Land): Constitutive Principles of Tlingit Law
Vanessa Udy is conducting research for her PhD dissertation with Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN), located in Atlin, BC. Her research objective is to explore constitutive principles of Tlingit law and how they shape institutions, norms, and processes of Tlingit law. Her literature review suggests that constitutive principles of relationality and balance are operationalized through a decentralized, clan-based governance system, providing a starting point for further investigation with elders and knowledge holders from TRTFN.
One gap in scholarly literature concerns the role of women, 2SLGBTQQIA people, youth and non-human beings in Tlingit law. Tlingit law is matrilineal, defining kinship between humans and relationships to the land primarily through the maternal line. However, scholarship has diminished the contributions of Tlingit women and overlooked those of 2SLGBTQQIA people, youth and other beings (e.g. animals, spirits, etc.). Vanessa will conduct interviews with elders and other knowledge holders from TRTFN’s Wolf and Crow Clans to address this gap in academic literature.
Vanessa Udy (BCL, LL.B., LL.M.) is a a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law. Vanessa has worked with the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN) Heritage Department on research projects concerning traditional Tlingit law since 2022. Vanessa is also a lawyer and a member of the Barreau du Québec and the Law Society of British Columbia. She has advised Indigenous governments across Canada on a variety of matters including negotiations with government and industry, community trusts, and the protection of traditional knowledge.
This award is named in memory of Dr. Jim McDonald, a renowned anthropologist, professor (UNBC), and former president of ACUNS.
Caylee Dzurka
PhD Candidate, Archaeology
Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador
Project: akisevallianik angutimut/anguniarnek: Decolonizing Gender and Sexuality in Arctic Archaeology through Community-Based Research
Archaeologists often assume that historical Inuit communities had a strict gender binary and exclusively two-parent families, despite oral histories of role-swapping, polyamory, and gender diversity. To challenge these narratives and connect contemporary Inuit to their ancestors, Caylee’s team is with working Inuit of all gender and sexual identities from Nunatsiavut to develop an archive of oral histories of diverse relationships and gender identities. These stories include 2SLGBTQ+ Inuit experiences and those of others who do not fit the norms of Settler society, such as women who hunt.
By revitalizing these histories, they aim to:
a) create culturally appropriate interpretations of gender and sexuality in the Inuit past
b) determine how interacting with material culture can heal 2SLGBTQ+ Inuit
c) foster discussions which build a more inclusive future for all Inuit of Nunatsiavut
Caylee Dzurka (she/they) is a PhD Candidate in the Archaeology Department at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. As a 3rd generation Ukrainian Settler from Treaty 7 territory, she is aware that studying a history that is not her own is a privilege, not a right, and strives to work with Indigenous people whenever possible to uplift and empower their voices and perspectives.
This award is made possible by an endowment from the children of the late Peter and Kay McGeer. The McGeers were avid travellers who had a special affinity for the Arctic and its inhabitants.
Gunther Abrahamson Research and Management Award ($5,000)
Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board (BQCMB)
Alexandra Kanters
PhD Candidate, Community Health Sciences
Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
Project: Kiudjutigiblugit Ilihimayauyut uvalu Naluyauyut / Responding to Knowledge and Uncertainties: A Transdisciplinary One Health Approach to Knowledge about Emerging Infectious Diseases in Arctic Canada
The Arctic is undergoing rapid climate change, which is influencing the transmission of infectious diseases across ecosystems and posing new potential health risks for Arctic Indigenous communities. Two emerging zoonotic bacteria—Brucella suis biovar 4 and Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae—have been identified in caribou and muskoxen and are associated with both wildlife population declines and risks to people who harvest, butcher, and consume these animals.
This doctoral research, conducted in partnership with the Kutz Research Group at the University of Calgary and Inuit communities in Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk (Nunavut), and Ulukhaktok (Northwest Territories), examines how knowledge about these pathogens is produced, shared, and used to protect human and animal health. Using community-based, mixed-methods approaches, the project works with Inuit harvesters of caribou and muskoxen, and other key knowledge holders.
Alexandra is a doctoral candidate in the Cumming School of Medicine’s Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. Her interest in Arctic science began when she started working with the Kutz Research Group in 2022 on zoonoses that affect caribou, muskoxen, and people in Arctic Canada. She completed her undergraduate degree at McGill University and her Master of Public Health at the University of Alberta, focusing on community-level health promotion.
This award supports research that contributes to the understanding of barren-ground caribou and their habitat, or applies to caribou conservation and management.
The annual ACUNS Awards Program supports post-secondary students in diverse disciplines of northern studies who demonstrate academic excellence, leadership, and a commitment to northern communities. Funding for the awards comes from the Canadian Northern Studies Trust and private donors. Since 1982, ACUNS has helped more than 700 students reach their academic goals. Our awards alumni have gone on to successful careers in northern research, academia, politics, law, and the arts. To learn more about our past recipients, please see our Annual Reports, found on our Members page.
We are very grateful to our donors who make these scholarships possible.
Thank you also to our ACUNS Awards Committee for adjudicating all the candidates.