The Office of the Vice-Dean Research established these awards to recognize the role of dedicated teaching, sustained and creative research and generous service to the community, the University and the Faculty of Law in strengthening our institution and raising our public profile.
Congratulations to our very deserving winners and to all of those who were nominated!
Here are our 2024-2025 winners:
The Excellence in Teaching Award, French Common Law Program
Awarded to a full-time faculty member of the French Common Law Program who has demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching through the development of innovative teaching methods and programs, and dedication to the student experience.
Nathalie Chalifour
The French Common Law Program is renowned for the quality of its teaching staff. It's not easy to stand out when you're part of such an exceptional peer group, but that's exactly what Professor Chalifour managed to do in the 2023-2024 academic year. Students who have attended Professor Chalifour's courses emphasize that she is “a model of pedagogical excellence” due to her “methodology, professionalism, politeness, responsiveness, wisdom, inclusiveness and ability to make difficult content accessible.” They go on to say that her courses are “not only a space for learning, but also a place of inspiration and personal development for students.” One student went so far as to assert that “there are no words precise enough to express what an extraordinary person and pedagogue Professor Chalifour is.”
The Excellence in Teaching Award, English Common Law Program
Awarded to a full-time faculty member of the English Common Law Program who has demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching through the development of innovative teaching methods and programs, and dedication to the student experience.
Jena McGill
Professor Jena McGill’s exceptional commitment to innovative pedagogy, student mentorship, and program development, combined with her consistently outstanding teaching, sets her apart as a truly remarkable educator. While excellence in teaching is a hallmark of our Faculty, Professor McGill’s contributions are unparalleled and deserve special recognition. She has embraced diverse teaching techniques to enhance engagement and learning. She is particularly interested in challenging knowledge hierarchies and making the law accessible to all. Her courses incorporate social media, podcasts, short videos, music, blogs, and legal toolkits emphasizing how the law operates in practice, making the subject matter exciting and relatable. At the same time, she integrates a back-to-basics chalkboard approach with her innovative methods.
The Ian Kerr Award for Excellence in Teaching
Awarded to a full-time, pre-tenure professor in either the French Common Law Program or the English Common Law Program who has demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching through the development of innovative teaching methods and programs, and dedication to the student experience.
Stefanie Carsley
Professor Carsley has brought fresh perspectives to all of her courses, including Tort Law and Introduction to Family Law. She employs a “flipped classroom” model that enhances students' engagement and understanding of complex legal principles. This method promotes active learning and optimizes classroom time for discussions, clarifications, and practical application of the law. Her classroom environment is inclusive and participatory. Weekly group leaders prepare assignments and facilitate discussions, ensuring all voices are heard. Her students frequently remark on how this warm-calling approach encourages participation. The success of her flipped classroom model is evident in her consistently excellent teaching evaluations, where students highlight her clarity, organization, and ability to foster a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere.
The Excellence in Research Award
Awarded to a member of the faculty who has earned distinction as a result of the importance and exceptional characteristics of their research over the past seven years.
Aimée Craft
Aimée Craft’s academic, research, and professional experiences have allowed her to contribute substantially and consistently to the expansion of knowledge and scholarly work, evidenced by her numerous publications of various types within her areas of expertise, which have had a significant and valuable impact on her fields of research in Canadian constitutional and Aboriginal law, Indigenous-Crown treaties, Indigenous laws and legal orders and freshwater governance. Additionally, her projects have made important contributions to decolonization efforts, including supporting Indigenous communities in reclaiming and securing the future of their traditions. Embedded in Professor Craft’s research projects is a commitment to mentoring future generations of lawyers and scholars. She has prioritized mentorship and has designed her research projects to include extensive training for students.
The Emerging Researcher Award
Awarded to a member of the faculty who has earned distinction as a result of the importance and exceptional characteristics of their research. At the time of nomination, the nominee must have completed at least two years, but no more than seven years as a full-time professor at the University of Ottawa or elsewhere.
Roojin Habibi
Professor Roojin Habibi’s research examines normative interpretation and change in global health law. As an emerging scholar, Professor Habibi is an extremely energetic and thoughtful researcher. In 2023 and 2024 alone, she published seven co-authored scholarly journal articles, one sole-authored journal article, three co-authored chapters in books, five co-authored reports, and numerous op-eds. She regularly collaborates with scholars and practitioners in law, medicine, human rights, international law and health policy. Building relations and cultivating coherent research is no small feat and Professor Habibi thrives in this kind of research atmosphere. Her expertise is sought after, and she has been invited to give talks about a broad range of topics related to human rights and public health law.
The Greenberg Prize for Feminist Research
Awarded by the Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession, the annual Greenberg Prize for Feminist Research recognizes the most significant article, book chapter or monograph published in the last 3 years on women and the law.
This year's Greenberg Prize is shared between two co-authored and collaborative pieces that challenge us to think about the inclusive nature of the provisions in the Charter. One paper, titled “Nothwithstanding the Notwithstanding Clause: A Case for Constitutional Guardrails on Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” authored by Professor Natasha Bakht and Professor Lynda Collins, argues that section 33 is not a bottomless pit where rights and freedoms go to die but must comport with unwritten constitutional principles including but not limited to the rule of law and respect for minorities.
The second winning paper, titled “Coming of Age in a Warming World: The Charter's Section 15(1) Equality Guarantee and Youth-Led Climate Litigation,” authored by Professor Nathalie Chalifour, Jessica Earle and Laura Macintyre, argues that government conduct related to climate change constitutes unjustifiable age-based discrimination, especially in light of irrefutable scientific evidence that youth and future generations will bear a disproportionate burden of a destabilized climate.
“I am confident that our Supreme Court will be studying and citing these papers in the near future as we see courts grapple with the applications of ss 33 and 15(1),” says Professor Jamie Liew, current chairholder of the Shirley Greenberg Chair. “These papers touch not only on complex constitutional issues in interdisciplinary ways but grapple with contemporary and important issues facing our communities today.”
In addition to the awards listed above, last fall the Common Law Section was pleased to present the Award for Distinguished Service by a Staff Member to Marie-Claude Langlois, Manager of Finance for the Common Law Section.
We look forward to continuing this awards program in 2025. A new call for nominations will be sent out in the fall. In the meantime, if you have ideas for future nominees, please feel free to communicate them to [email protected].