Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

Open to undergraduate students from all campuses and disciplines, the $1,000 prize recognizes research conducted while completing course work. This year’s winners are all Faculty of Arts & Science students:

Kiera Farrell-Beaulieu (second year, Innis College)
Tegan Ridge (fourth year, St. Michael’s College)
Colin Stewart (fourth year, University College)
Emma Sullivan (third year, Victoria College)
Sally Walker-Hudecki (second year, Trinity College)
Braden Zufelt (fourth year, Trinity College)

“It is wonderful to see our talented students utilizing the wealth of information available at the libraries,” Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr said. “I was particularly impressed by the students’ innovation at navigating the various resources, exemplifying the extraordinary undergraduate work happening at the University of Toronto.”

U of T Chief Librarian Larry Alford said he was deeply impressed by the winners' research.

“The students especially deserve to be commended for putting together their applications this year under the challenging circumstances of a global pandemic when the university had to quickly move online and classes were in the midst of transition.”

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Tegan Ridge receives 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

lanthierj — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 19:45:00 +0000

Tegan Ridge receives 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Wed, 08/12/2020 - 15:45

Students

St. George

U of T Libraries

St. Michael's College

Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

portrait

Tegan Ridge is one of six winners of the 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize.

A Faculty of Arts & Science student in her fourth year St. Michael’s College, Ridge won for her research paper on Othmar Schoeck’s Penthesilea, completed for the course TMU 499Y1: Independent Study.

“Schoeck was Swiss, the libretto for the music drama written in German,” Ridge says. “Consequently, much of the scholarship I uncovered referred to materials held in German-speaking lands.”

With the help of U of T librarians, Ridge says she was able to reach out to archives abroad and obtain digitized materials.

“Notably, in the existing literature on Schoeck, there is no precedent for the kind of multifaceted study Tegan completed,” says Assistant Professor Daphne Tan, supervisor for the course. “Tegan’s final paper is rich in theoretical and analytical detail, and moreover, due to her keen understanding of an eclectic body of scholarship and the gaps therein, she offers several innovative insights."

The Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize is made possible due to an endowment by Mrs. Patricia Wilson and Mr. Peter Wilson.

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Emma Sullivan receives 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

lanthierj — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 19:40:26 +0000

Emma Sullivan receives 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Wed, 08/12/2020 - 15:40

Students

St. George

Faculty of Arts & Science

Victoria College

Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

U of T Libraries

portrait

Emma Sullivan is one of six winners of the 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize.

A Faculty of Arts & Science student in her third year at Victoria College, she won for her project on gene editing technologies and Pelizaeus Merzbacher Disease (PMD). Sullivan, who is pursuing a double major in cell and molecular biology and health and disease, completed the project for the course HMB 496: Research Project in Human Biology.

“During the entire project, Emma continuously learnt and updated herself by searching through the scientific literature… Every time she encountered a new challenge, she went back to study what was published on the topic and brought back the possible solutions to the lab,” said course supervisor Eleanora Maino.

Sullivan said the most important thing she learned throughout the process was to ask questions.

“It was such a unique and exciting opportunity to immerse myself in this project as I learned everything from scratch; both about PMD from the existing literature, and how to perform required lab techniques and software manipulations,” said Sullivan.

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Braden Zufelt receives 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

lanthierj — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 19:31:25 +0000

Braden Zufelt receives 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Wed, 08/12/2020 - 15:31

Students

St. George

Faculty of Arts & Science

Trinity College

U of T Libraries

Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

portrait

Braden Zufelt is one of six winners of the 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize.

A Trinity College student, Zufelt just graduated from the Faculty of Arts & Science with high distinction, having majored in international relations and philosophy. He won for his research project on “the myth of Anglo-French hostility to German reunification,” completed for the course TRN 410: Understanding Contemporary International Relations.

“Prior to my investigation, I had not fully understood the wealth of databases available through the University of Toronto Libraries, specifically those housing historical newspapers,” Zufelt said. “Noting the availability of these databases has led me to a greater appreciation of libraries not only for the resources they offer, but also for the institutions themselves: libraries are the organizational bedrock of any academic discipline, though perhaps most especially the humanities – which are fundamental to our understanding of the world and each other.”

Professor John M. Dirks, instructor for the course, praised Zufelt’s broad, interdisciplinary range of primary and secondary sources.

“Unquestionably Braden is a brilliant analyst and writer,” Dirks said. “Yet by reading as widely as he did, he is able to put forward this genuinely original interpretation.”

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Colin Stewart receives 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

lanthierj — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 19:07:19 +0000

Colin Stewart receives 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Wed, 08/12/2020 - 15:07

Students

St. George

Faculty of Arts & Science

University College

Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize

portrait

Colin Stewart is one of six winners of the 2020 Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize.

A Faculty of Arts & Science student in his fourth year at University College, Stewart is pursuing a double major in history and art history. He won for his research paper on objects in the University of Toronto’s Malcove Collection, completed for the course VPHD 42Y3: Supervised Reading in Art History.

“Doing a year-long research project taught me a lot about information-seeking, principally how to exhaust my means of searching, and if I still could not find what I was looking for, to ask either a librarian or an expert,” Stewart says. He adds that his research was supported by “a whole network of people, in my case spread across three continents and many languages” and professions.

“His ability to simultaneously conduct original research while assessing the quality and contribution of the scholarly sources is a formidable combination, rarely seen in undergraduate-level projects,” says Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Erin L. Webster, who is supervisor of the course.

The Patricia and Peter Shannon Wilson Undergraduate Research Prize is made possible due to an endowment by Mrs. Patricia Wilson and Mr. Peter Wilson.

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