Graduate Student News

Psychology Master’s Student Wins Autism Scholars Award

Jennifer Crookshank has won a 2025 Autism Scholars Award from The Council of Ontario Universities.

The master’s student in Psychology was one of five graduate students chosen for the distinguished award.

“I am thrilled and honoured, to receive this award,” says Crookshank. “I was speechless when I opened the email! Ontario has some very strong researchers in this area, so it’s humbling to get this recognition.”

After earning her Bachelor of Science in 1999 and her Master of Science in 2001, Crookshank spent 18 years working in the biological sciences. In 2004, Crookshank became a parent to a child with autism and, despite being engaged and having positive relationships with her child’s schools, encountered challenges within the education system as the years went by. These challenges motivated her to pursue researching this area and returning to university was a means to garner the appropriate qualifications. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Carleton in 2023 and is now working towards a master’s degree.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition. Crookshank explains that children and adults with autism often have challenges with social communication and display restricted and repetitive behaviours or intense-focused interests that can affect their experience at school.

“A lot of children on the spectrum have challenges at school. They are more likely to experience school absenteeism than neurotypical children,” says Crookshank. “My project is looking at what are the risk factors for children to engage in school avoidance behaviours."

Banting Postdoctoral Fellow Joshua Steckley Receives SSHRC Impact Talent Award for Research on Worms, Cows and Capital

Carleton University researcher, Joshua Steckley, has been awarded the 2025 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Impact Talent Award, one of Canada’s highest honours for emerging scholars in the social sciences and humanities.

The award recognizes a current SSHRC doctoral or postdoctoral fellow who demonstrates exceptional research, knowledge mobilization and scholarly impact.

Steckley, a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science, explores how humans use, manage and profit from living things, such as worms and livestock, and how those practices affect both society and the environment.

From Ontario’s bait worm industry to large-scale dairy farming, his research illuminates the often-overlooked relationships between business, biotechnology and agricultural livelihoods, and the contradictions and possibilities within these systems.

This recognition marks Carleton’s second SSHRC Impact Talent Award, highlighting the university’s reputation in attracting exceptional scholars and increasing research strength.

“Receiving this award is an incredible honour,” says Steckley.

PhD Student Philippe Boucher Research Highlighted: Transforming the Justice System in Indigenous Communities

Three times a year, a temporary courtroom is set up in the community centre in Kawawachikamach, a Naskapi Nation community more than 500 kilometres north of Sept-Iles, Quebec.

The travelling court hears criminal cases involving residents of Kawawachikamach and the adjacent Innu community of Matimekosh Lac-John, which have a combined population of about 2,000 and are only accessible via airplane or train.

French is the first language for most the judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers who go north, while Naskapi offenders, victims and witnesses are typically more comfortable speaking Naskapi or English. This disconnect makes it difficult for people to navigate the provincial justice system, and it’s just one example of the myriad practical and cultural obstacles faced by remote Indigenous communities across Canada when they interact with government institutions.

To better understand the experiences of Indigenous people involved in criminal cases, and to help reform Quebec’s courts so they reflect Indigenous traditions and serve as a step toward healing, Shecanapish is collaborating with Carleton University Legal Studies PhD student Philippe Boucher on what he calls a “research-action” project.

Boucher, whose research is supported by both a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, has been spending a significant amount of time observing court proceedings in Kawawachikamach over the past four years and is planning to interview community members to learn what’s working and what can be improved.

Call for Papers for the Underhill Graduate Student Colloquium

Join us Feb. 26 to 27, 2026 at Carleton for the 32nd Underhill Graduate Student Colloquium, presented by Carleton’s Department of History. This year’s theme is, Reimagining Community | Doing History Together.

We welcome work that may not fit the conventional “paper presentation,” such as posters, roundtable discussions and workshops. Paper presentations should be about 15 minutes, and any other format up to 60 minutes. If you are unsure if your idea if suitable, please contact us at underhillcolloquium@cunet.carleton.ca.

Applications will be accepted using this Google Form link. Please prepare a short abstract between 250 to 300 words of your presentation, along with a biographical statement (max. 300 words). Although this conference will primarily be held in-person, we will consider a limited number of hybrid or virtual presentations. Deadline is midnight Dec. 19. 

Carleton University Graduate Political Science Conference on Feb. 27

The Political Science Graduate Students' Association (PSGSA) at Carleton University, in collaboration with the Department of Political Science, are excited to present the 8th annual PSGSA Conference: States, Societies, and Structures.

The conference brings together graduate students whose research speaks to these concerns from a range of perspectives and fields, including International Relations, Comparative Politics, Critical Race and Gender Studies, Political Theory, Canadian Politics, as well as related disciplines.

This year’s conference will take place on Feb. 27 at Carleton and we invite all master's and doctoral students to participate.

The first round of abstract submissions are due Jan. 9. Apply here!

Submissions Open for Sumac Literary Magazine

Sumac Literary Magazine publishes work by people connected to Carleton University and/or the land it is on.

Students, alumni, faculty, staff, community members, and anyone with links to our campus or community are welcome to submit their work for consideration.

Deadline to submit is Dec. 31. More information here.

Students in Carleton’s “Editing a Literary Magazine” course will be responsible for curating Sumac’s fourth issue during the Winter 2026 term.