The John L. Haar Library and the Office of the Provost established this program to celebrate faculty achievement and to mark career progress. Eligible faculty members are invited to select a book or any work suitable for the library collection that holds professional or personal meaning for them. Selections are added to the library catalogue and will have a commemorative book plate attached, in recognition of these significant professional and personal milestones.

Selected Works

2023

Brendan Boyd, Awarded Tenure
Anthropology, Economics and Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Science

Statehouse and Greenhouse: The Emerging Politics of American Climate Change Policy by Barry Rabe

This book brought to my attention that local efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change could be just as effective as large, globally coordinated efforts. It helped me to explore the details and nuances of the climate change issue, from a political institutional and public policy perspective. This approach has filtered down to my teaching and research as I strive to help students and policy makers work constructively to solve problems rather than score political, rhetorical or ideological points.

Year of Recognition: 2023

Francoise Cadigan, Awarded Tenure
Organizational Behavior, Human Resources Management and Management, School of Business

Morrice and Lyman In the Company of Matisse by Francois Gagnon, Michele Grandbois, John O'Brian

Thank you to MacEwan University for honouring my tenure accomplishment with this gift. My research explores managers' preferences regarding their employees and who they consider 'talented.' I am inspired by all talent that creates beauty in our world. I hope this book of art will continue to inspire me to attain excellence, knowledge, and beauty in my life and work.

Year of Recognition: 2023

Brendan Cavanagh, Awarded Tenure
Allied Health and Human Performance, Faculty of Health and Community Studies

Sloan A Sides Win: Singles 1992–2005 by Sloan

There are many different musical artists that I listened to during my many years at university. Sloan is one of my all-time favorites, and I am proud that they are Canadian too. This compilation includes many of my favorite songs that I used as an escape from many hours of studying. Take a study break and listen up, enjoy!

Year of Recognition: 2023

Helena Dayal, Awarded Tenure
Student Affairs

In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness by Peter A. Levine

In an Unspoken Voice is a book that significantly shifted the way I view and understand trauma and its impact. Peter Levine (the creator of Somatic Experiencing) shares personal and therapeutic examples, as well as research to support his theory that trauma is stored in the body. He contends that only through body awareness and rebalancing the nervous system can we heal trauma. Reading this booked helped me see the importance of attending to the body and nervous system as central to healing trauma. Integrating this learning into my practice has changed me as a psychologist and helped me further understand the mind-body connection.

Year of Recognition: 2023

Randi Ziorio Dunlop, Awarded Tenure
Human Health & Sciences, Faculty of Nursing

West End Girls by Jenny Colgan

When I want to escape the pressures of life, I reach for a good book. And Jenny Colgan is one of my favourites. She writes from the perspective of women, taking readers on a journey of a character's challenges mixed in with laughter and a perfect fairytale ending. Of all Jenny Colgan's books, it's hard to choose just one, but as a twin myself, a book about twin sisters felt like the right one. My sister has been the source of a great deal of support and encouragement in my personal and professional life. I hope you enjoy this escape as much as I have.

Year of Recognition: 2023

Marla Epp, Awarded Tenure
Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Science

Résistance: Contes de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en France by Édith Thomas

Édith Thomas (1909-1970) accompanied me on my first steps as a researcher. After encountering her in an undergraduate class, I decided to study her texts written during the Nazi Occupation of France during my early graduate work. I was fascinated not only by her accounts of life during the Occupation, but also by the way in which writing became a means of making sense of what was happening around her. Working with her archives in Paris was an added bonus! This collection of short stories, about everyday French people resisting the Occupation, was originally published clandestinely under a pseudonym in 1943. Her short stories testify to the importance of writing, of reading, and of storytelling, especially during times of instability, and are a reminder that literature can be a powerful form of resistance.

Year of Recognition: 2023

Heather Fitzsimmons Frey, Awarded Tenure
Arts and Cultural Management, Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications

Performing Remains by Rebecca Schneider

Could reimagining the past encourage people to reimagine the future? Rebecca Schneider describes living history reenactments as a disruption: "Rather than a unidirectional art march toward an empiric future of preservation, time plays forward and backward and sideways across the imagined community of an otherwise spatialized national plot." I love the idea of shifting time sideways. I love the possibility that the past may have yet another future, and that the present may involve reenacting a new past. This brilliantly written time-bending work influenced my PhD dissertation regarding children and at-home theatricals, and my current research in living history museums. As statues are toppling, the failures of the TRC Calls to Action are apparent, and the climate crisis forces people to rethink choices, Schneider asks readers to consider what the past drags with it into the present, how critique may interrupt and change the past, and how people create futures.

Year of Recognition: 2023

Jessica Haines, Awarded Tenure
Biological Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Science

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

I grew up exploring nature while hiking in coastal forests and kayaking with seals. But many of my family members hadn’t gone to university, so it didn’t occur to me until I was an undergraduate student that “biology professor” was a job that I could aim for. I was lucky because I met Dr. Dan Keppie, who hired me and started my career in wildlife biology. He also gave me a book - A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. Leopold’s beautiful stories of his experiences with wild animals and places captured my imagination. Now, as a professor who has earned tenure, this book has taken on new meaning. Now when I read it, I find myself drawn to Leopold’s land ethic in which he argues that humans are a part of natural ecosystems, not separate from them. Getting tenure means that I am now rooted in place, a permanent part of this university community and connected to Alberta ecosystems through my work. I hope I can inspire students to think more deeply about their connection to nature in my classes and through my research. And I will do my best to give students opportunities to get involved in wildlife biology - like the opportunities I was given as a student when I was gifted this book.

Year of Recognition: 2023

Faye Hamilton, Awarded Tenure
Social Work, Faculty of Health and Community Studies

What Happened to You: Conversations on trauma, resilience, and healing by Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey

This book represents an area of learning for me that has changed my teaching, my social work practice, and all aspects of my life. While this was not the first book that I read on understanding traumatic experiences and trauma impacts, it is a great introduction to essential ways of understanding traumatic experiences and what they mean for us and for those around us. I hope that this book brings you a new view on your experiences and the experiences of others.

Year of Recognition: 2023

Travis Hatt, Awarded Tenure
Theatre, Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse -The Art of the Movie by Ramin Zahed

I have always had a great love of Spider-Man, and of art and media, I think it is one of the reasons I ended up in the theatre. This film broke new ground with its art style, and upon seeing it at a pre-release preview showing at WEM at the end of my first term here at MacEwan, I knew that animation had changed forever. I love this film, and the art is a primary reason why. I hope that this art book from the movie will inspire more nerdy kids from every background to pursue their dreams in the arts and see where it takes them because anyone can wear the mask.

Year of Recognition: 2023