Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award (JCURA)
JCURA was established in 2009-10 as the Undergraduate Research Scholarship program by then Vice-President Academic and Provost, Dr. Jamie Cassels. It is designed to provide support for exceptional undergraduate students who might otherwise not be able to obtain a direct research experience as a part of what is a truly formative learning experience. The Learning and Teaching Centre (LTC) administers the award nomination process on behalf of the Provost’s Office.
This award experience allows students to be mentored by a faculty supervisor. Successful student applicants receive $1,500 credited directly to their UVic fee account.
Meet our 2021-2022 JCURA recipients Sophie Sacilotto and Sarah Wald!
Check out their posters and video presentations in the 2021 tab links below!


2021
Sarah Wald (Supervised by Dr. Helga Thorson, Dr. Matthew Pollard, and Dr. Elena Pnevmonidou) "Empty Beds: Representations of Euthanasia in Nazi Propaganda Films."
Sophie Sacilotto (Supervisor Dr. Megan Swift) "The Memorialization of Babin Yar"
2020
Linnet Chappelka (Supervisor Dr. Elena Pnevmonidou) "Rückenfigur and Romanticism: Caspar David Friedrich’s Portraits of Landscapes and German Identity"
Alicia Ward (Supervisor Dr. Olga Pressitch) "Folklore and Ukrainian Canadian Identity"
2019
Anika Pobuda (Supervisor Dr. Megan Swift) "Social and Political Instability and the Rise of Russian Absurdism in the Early 20th Century"
Lydia Hibbing (Supervisor Dr. Matt Pollard) "Bridging the German Gender Gap"
2018
Samuel Martin (Supervisor Julia Rochtchina): “Russian Cultural Attitudes towards the Citizen-State Relationship”
2017
Stephanie Kates (Supervisor Charlotte Schallie) with the project A Pro-Nazi Vichy Regime: France's Collaboration in the Holocaust.
Tia Lund (Supervisor Elena Pnevmonidou) with the project Human Trafficking in German Refugee Camps and Law Enforcement’s Response.
2016
Devon McKinnon (Supervisor Dr. Serhy Yekelchyk) with the project "Remembering the Gulag: Memory and Amnesia in Post-Communist Russia".
Jeffery Simpson (Supervisor Dr. Julia Rochtchina) with the project on pre-Christian deities of the Slavic people.
2015
Lucas McKinnon, “A Life Incomplete: Towards a Poetics of Inexhaustibility”(supervised by Elena Pnevmonidou).
2014
Lauren Thompson (Supervisor Dr. Helga Thorson) with the project "Bertha Pappenheim’s Tragische Momente: Drei Lebensbilder (1913): Politics Represented through Drama".
Erin Lowey (Supervisor Dr. Ulf Schuetze) with the project "Learning the German Subjunctive in Conversation with Native Speakers and an Online Grammar Toolbar".
Rowan Meredith (Supervisor Dr. Megan Swift) with the project "LGBT rights in Russia and the Sochi Olympics".