A journalism and a humanities professor will be honoured this month at Rideau Hall
Two faculty members, Sylvia Hamilton of King’s Journalism School and Inglis Professor Dr. Shirley Tillotson, have been awarded 2019 Governor General’s history awards.
King’s Associate Professor of Journalism and Rogers Chair in Communication, Sylvia Hamilton, will receive the 2019 Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media (Pierre Berton Award).
Professor Sylvia Hamilton.
Hamilton has made an indelible mark on our understanding of Black history, while enriching and reframing conceptions of Canadian history and its subjects, and is considered one of the most influential public historians working today. She’s been teaching documentary journalism at King’s since 2004. Since then, hundreds of King’s journalism students have benefited from her immense knowledge, steadfast guidance and firm, gentle nature. All the while, her impressive and award-winning body of work as a Nova Scotian filmmaker, essayist, poet, public speaker and multi-media artist has grown. She also volunteers extensively with artistic, social and cultural organizations at the local and national levels.
Hamilton will receive her 2019 Governor General’s History Award alongside King’s Inglis Professor and historian Dr. Shirley Tillotson, who is receiving the 2019 Governor General’s History Award for Scholarly Research.
Dr. Shirley Tillotson.
Tillotson is being recognized for her book Give and Take: The Citizen-Taxpayer and the Rise of Canadian Democracy which was published by UBC Press in 2017. It examines how much historians can learn by exploring taxation and related fiscal measures. King’s first announced this back in June when Shirley was awarded the Canadian Historical Society’s Best Scholarly Book In Canadian History. (The winner of that prize automatically goes on to win the Governor General’s History Award for Scholarly Research.)
Give and Take focuses on the development of tax policy between 1917 and 1971. Through the lens of taxation, it brings to light how democracy and citizenship came to be conceptualized in a modernizing nation that idealized tax fairness and a just social order. It has been called a ‘trailblazing study.’
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, will preside over a ceremony to be held at Rideau Hall, January 20, 2019, at which Hamilton and Tillotson will receive their awards. King’s offers them both congratulations for these honours, and gratitude for their many contributions to King’s and society.
