UBC Law Doctoral Student Receives Vanier Canada Scholarship

UBC Law PH.D student Kurt Mundorff is one of seventeen UBC doctoral students who received an inaugural Vanier Canada Scholarship, the Canadian equivalent of a Rhodes scholarship in the U.K. and a Fulbright scholarship in the U.S. Mundorff is also a UBC Law LL.M graduate.

The winners will receive $50,000 a year for up to three years to support their graduate studies. UBC has the second highest number of scholars, after the University of Toronto.

In a press release issued by UBC Public Affairs, President Stephen Toope stated: "Graduate students play a vital role in the research enterprise here at UBC and around the world. Their contribution to the generation of new knowledge - both driven by innate curiosity and real-world applications - helps us better understand our world while providing important economic and social benefits."

At the Faculty of Law, Mundorff’s work is focussed on an analysis of the Genocide Convention and the forced removal of Doukhobor children in British Columbia in the 1950s. He is working on this project with supervisor Professor Karin Mickelson.

Launched in 2008, the Vanier Canada Scholarships program is administered by the country's three federal research granting agencies - the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. At full capacity, the program will support up to 500 doctoral students from Canada and abroad annually.

The first cohort of 166 recipients was announced on April 30, 2009 in Ottawa. Nominees were evaluated through peer-review and selected by a board of world-renowned Canadian and international experts that includes former UBC President Martha Piper and Bombardier board chair Laurent Beaudoin.

 More information on the Vanier Canada Scholarships can be found at http://www.vanier.gc.ca/nr-co/nr-co-20090430-eng.shtml.