Two recent graduates from York's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) have received top honours from the Canadian Studies Network–Réseau d’études canadiennes (CSN-RÉC) for innovative work that explores identity, place and experience in Canada.
A bilingual scholarly association, CSN–RÉC connects and supports academics, students and institutions engaged in Canadian studies through research, teaching and collaboration across the country. Each year, it recognizes exceptional interdisciplinary scholarship that deepens understanding of Canada.
This year, two York alums received top honours from the organization for work done during their time at the University.
Michelle Sraha-Yeboah
Sraha-Yeboah received the Best PhD Dissertation in Canadian Studies Award, which honours an outstanding interdisciplinary doctoral thesis that significantly advances knowledge of Canada. She earned the recognition for her dissertation “From Palliative Practice to Transformative Praxis: A Black Feminist Psychology Framework on Black Canadians’ Mental Healthcare Service Delivery.”
Her research examines how historical, structural and racial forces influence mental health service use and well-being among Black Canadians, particularly those connected to faith traditions and diasporic communities. The award-winning dissertation combines interviews with parish ministers and psychotherapists, literary analysis of thematically resonant novels, and qualitative research to challenge conventional explanations for the underuse of mental health services in Black communities.
The CSN–RÉC awards committee described the dissertation as “bold, original and creative,” calling it “a concrete example of what the new field of Canadian studies can offer – a dynamic praxis that brings different disciplines into conversation to address pressing social issues.”
While at York, Sraha-Yeboah received the University's Barbara Godard Prize for the Best York University Dissertation in Canadian Studies. Her dissertation will now be submitted by CSN–RÉC as Canada’s nominee for the International Council for Canadian Studies Best Doctoral Thesis Award, an international honour recognizing the most outstanding doctoral research in Canadian studies worldwide.
Aysha Campbell
Campbell received the Best MA Thesis or Major Research Paper in Canadian Studies Award, which recognizes outstanding interdisciplinary research and innovation in the study of Canada. She was honoured for her major research paper “Scarborough Through the Lens of Sound and Literature,” which was also recognized with the Leslie Sanders Prize at York University in 2024.
Campbell’s work explores how Black, brown, Asian and Indigenous residents of Scarborough experience and define their city on their own terms, despite systems of oppression that produce both invisibility and hypervisibility. Drawing on the emerging field of sound studies, her paper uses auditory and literary analysis to show how racialized communities reinterpret Scarborough as a vibrant, relational space grounded in shared ways of being.
The awards committee commended her work as “rigorous and theoretically interesting yet immensely readable,” calling it an important contribution to the growing field of Black Canadian studies.
At York, Campbell previously received the LA&PS Dean’s Award for Research Excellence for her project “York Study Mouse Mentoring and Tutoring Program for Black Youth-in-Care,” which supported Black youth in the child welfare system. She also earned the Humanities Education and Research Association Undergraduate Research Prize for a paper critically examining Canada’s liberal democracy and its historical ties to Black freedom.
Readers can learn more about the CSN–RÉC and its annual awards at canadian-studies.ca.