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Emerging Scholar Award

 

2025 Recipient  |  Eligibility  |  Criteria  |  Nomination  |  Application  |  Past Recipients


The Emerging Scholar Award celebrates excellence in research and scholarship for an Assistant Professor or Senior Lecturer at Mount Royal who has completed their highest degree within the past 10 years. This award focuses on research and scholarship demonstrating impact and originality by producing new knowledge in one’s discipline or field.

Recipients of the Emerging Scholar Award receive a monetary award of $500 (choice of a cash honorarium, professional development funds or donation to a Mount Royal scholarship), a letter signed by the provost and vice-president, academic, and a framed certificate.

Award recipients are also recognized on Mount Royal's Faculty Excellence Awards website and at the Faculty Excellence Celebration in May. They may also be recognized through other channels.

Up to two awards may be granted each year.


2025 Award Recipient

 

Dr. Rebecca Gilmour

Dr. Rebecca Gilmour

Assistant Professor

Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Faculty of Arts

 

Since joining Mount Royal in 2020, Dr. Rebecca Gilmour, PhD, has generated an impressive body of research, obtained funding in national competitions and secured the long-term loan of a remarkable collection that is helping to establish Mount Royal as a leading bioarchaeological research hub.

Rebecca studies human skeletons with a focus on how disease impacts activity and bone health. Her co-edited volume, Behaviour in Our Bones: How Human Behaviour Influences Skeletal Morphology, is a significant contribution to biological anthropology research.

In 2023, Rebecca collaborated with numerous Austrian organizations and levels of government to secure a long-term loan to Mount Royal of a Roman archaeological collection comprising more than 250 skeletons from Carnuntum, Austria. A showpiece for the department and wider Mount Royal community, this collection is used in teaching and research. To date, 24 students have accessed the collection in their honours research, or as research assistants or volunteers.

“Dr. Gilmour consistently includes students in her scholarly work. With her honours student, she co-authored a paper that was published in a high-impact journal, and she has consistently included students as co-authors in poster presentations at national conferences,” says Mount Royal anthropology professor Dr. Samanti Kulatilake, PhD. “Dr. Gilmour, a passionate emerging scholar, is igniting the same sense of passion and excitement in her students.”

 


2025 Awards Adjudication Committee

Member Title
Dr. Connie Van der Byl Associate Vice-President, Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement (Chair)
Dr. Kenna Olsen Vice-Dean, Faculty of Arts
Dr. Leah Hamilton Vice-Dean, Faculty of Business and Communication Studies
Dr. Mark Lafave Associate Dean, Faculty of Health, Community and Education
Dr. Gwen O'Sullivan Vice-Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology
Francine May Associate Dean, University Library
Melissa Dean Director, Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement

Award requirements

 


Past recipients

 

 


Return to Faculty Excellence Awards


The Faculty Excellence Awards are administered through Academic Affairs, as part of Mount Royal’s Celebrate U framework for employee rewards and recognition.