TORONTO – Kassandra Luciuk, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University of Toronto, was awarded the Gunn Award for her research paper on Ukrainians living in Cold War Canada.
The Gunn Award (which carried a cash prize of $1,000) is presented jointly by the Canadian Immigration Historical Society (CIHS) and the International Migration Research Center (IMRC) at Wilfrid Laurier University. The award recognizes the best fourth-year or graduate-level research paper on the historical evolution of Canadian immigration policy or a historical analysis of Canadian immigration related to specific places, events, or communities.
Ms. Luciuk’s essay was chosen from a very strong field of candidates. Titled, “‘There is only one Ukrainian People’: Ukrainian Canadians, symbols of self, and the negotiation of legitimacy in Cold War Canada,” the essay explores how Taras Shevchenko, the best known 19th century Ukrainian poet and nationalist, became a symbol for the two Ukrainian Canadian organizations competing for support during the Cold War years – one socialist and Communist and the other anti-Communist and nationalist.
The award presentation took place on October 20 in Ottawa at the 30th annual general meeting of the Canadian Immigration Historical Society.