Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards
The Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA) program was established in 2009-2010 by the Vice-President Academic and Provost.
The goal of this award is to encourage undergraduates to pursue innovative and original research to enhance their learning while at the University of Victoria and to provide a valuable preparatory experience towards graduate studies or a research related career. The Division of Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation (LTSI) administers the award process on behalf of the Provost’s Office.
JCURA is directed at undergraduate students from all disciplines and who meet the following eligibility requirements:
- full-time third or fourth year undergraduate student (normally registered in 12 or more units of study in the winter session)
- excellent academic standing (normally with a minimum sessional GPA of 7.0)
- satisfy the general regulations of Student Awards and Financial Aid
This award experience allows students to be mentored by a faculty supervisor. Each academic unit is eligible for one to three student nominations per year, depending on the number of students in the unit.
Successful student applicants receive $1,500 credited directly to their UVic fee account.
2019-2020 Eligibility for Indigenous Faculty and Students
Application/nomination forms:
Application/nomination form 2019-20 - Word format - .rtf format
Please note: We ask that units collect all eligible nominations together and submit them as individual digital files in one email to the Division of Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation (LTSI).
The final deadline date for the LTSI to receive nominations from the faculty/department/school is June 30th.
Faculties/departments/schools are asked to submit all their unit's eligible number of nominations at the same time. Nominations will be processed and notifications will be made before mid-August.
Final survey
- Final survey - Student 2019-20 - Deadline date: Friday, April 24, 2020 (Will be sent out by email on March 5, 2020)
- Final survey - Supervisor 2019-20 - Deadline date: Friday, April 24, 2020 (Will be sent out by email on March 5, 2020)
General and financial questions
General questions concerning the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards should be directed to the LTSI.
Financial and related questions (for example regarding distribution of funds) after the award has been approved should be directed to the Scholarship Officer or 250-721-8107.
| Student | Department | Project title |
|---|---|---|
| Abbott, Ethan | Biochemistry and Microbiology | Still sweeter than sugar? Investigating sucralose as an endocrine disruptor |
| Anderson, Ryann | English | Community-Engagement on Stage: A Case Study of Productions in the Williams Head Institution |
| Andrew, Lucas | Chemistry | Developments in Microfluidics for Targeted Polymer Nanoparticle DNA Delivery Technology |
| Bancroft, Alan | Germanic and Slavic Studies | Continuity and Discontinuity in Soviet Film: Avant-Garde and Socialist Realism |
| Bell, Hannah | Theatre | Kansha: An Exploration of Cultural Appreciation Through Dramatic Process |
| Bell, Nathaniel | Psychology | The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Stress, Attention & Exam Performance |
| Berlin, Graham | Psychology | Early Experiences of Family-Based Heterosexism: Current Psychological Well-Being and Experiences of Shame in Sexual Minority Men |
| Bock, Laura | Germanic and Slavic Studies | KZ Hersbruck: a look at the impact of the Holocaust on a small German town |
| Boyd, Ben | Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education | Comparison of indoor and outdoor rock climbing on brain wave activity |
| Bradshaw, Zoe | History | What’s for Dinner? Early-Modern Meals, Food Preparation, and Class |
| Brown, Rachael | Biochemistry and Microbiology | Determining the Role of Eosinophils During Enteric Bacterial Infection |
| Chau, Hoi Yee | Pacific and Asian Studies | Improving China’s Two Child Policy Through a Gendered Perspective |
| Chewter, Erin | Germanic and Slavic Studies | Braiding Theory for Transformative Change: Exploring the Intersections and Incommensurabilities of Critical and Indigenous Theory |
| Choi, James | Medical Sciences | Synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus |
| Cliche, Élise | Geography | Tree-ring derived Little Ice Age hydroclimatic trends at Waddington Glacier, British Columbia |
| Conradi, Kai | Writing | Intersections of poetry and fiction in contemporary literature |
| Coulter, Brittany | Geography | Dendroglaciological investigations at Bell Glacier, British Columbia Coast Mountains |
| Craig, Caitlin | Anthropology | A Taphonomic Approach to the Study of Heat Treating Ostrich Eggshell Beads from the 11,500 year old site Grassridge (South Africa) |
| Crook, Rachael | Gender Studies | Politics and Subversive Potentials in "Fat Burlesque" |
| Crystal, Jamie | Music | Owen Underhill - Three Reflections on Pride |
| Cumberland, Mackenzie | Economics | The Effect of Changing Reference Groups on Female Happiness |
| Davie, Farah | Nursing | Exploring the impact of participation in an intergenerational choir on residents in long-term care |
| Davies, Emily | Chemistry | A ‘chemical fingerprint’ for drug detection and identification |
| Davis, Jacob | Chemistry | Synthesis of Prospective Pharmaceuticals |
| Demarco, Hector | Economics | An Udder One Bites The Dust” Optimal Grazing Management and Land Degradation |
| Dhalla, Alanya | Interdisciplinary Academic Programs | The Impact of Climate Change on Human Trafficking and Irregular Migration |
| Dias, Kim | Writing | Elements of a Fairy Tale: Necessities for a Retelling |
| Dixon, Larissa | Priority Initiative - Anthroplogy | Case Study: Triquet Artifact |
| Dobbs, Joseph | Biochemistry and Microbiology | Using Yeast to Determine if Missense Mutations in Ars2 are Linked to Neuropathic Disease |
| Duquette, Rosalie | Hispanic and Italian Studies | From Novel to Film: A Study of Angeles Mastretta's Arráncame la vida |
| Dussault Gomez, Marie-Anne | Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education | The Effect of Chronic Stress on the Cognitive Abilities of University Students |
| Engstrom, Jacob | Greek and Roman Studies | Inclusion in Exclusivity: Burial Practices in the Social and Political Developments of the Prepalatial Greek Mainland (MH I - LH II). With a Preliminary Case Study of Tomb 11 at Ancient Eleon, Central Greece |
| Fairley-Beam, Iris | Philosophy | Standards of Evidence in Sexual Assault Trials |
| Fitz-Gerald, Wylee | Earth and Ocean Sciences | Dynamics of dissolved oxygen in the Labrador Sea as observed by robotic profiling floats |
| Fode, Dominic | Earth and Ocean Sciences | Investigating Australia’s Sedimentary Reservoirs through Geologic History |
| Fraser, Jessica | Biology | Selfish X chromosomes and host-parasitoid interactions in Drosophila testacea |
| Frost, Lauren | Gender Studies | Casting Call: White Neutrality and Gender Binary in Theatre and Film |
| Gannon, Kiara | Environmental Studies | Traits of extinction: the conservation of species at risk in British Columbia |
| Glassford, Blake | Political Science | Tale of Two Democracies: Examining the Effectiveness of U.N. Democratization Missions |
| Graham, Sarah | Interdisciplinary Academic Programs | How Can (un)Learning Settler Ancestry Challenge Settler Colonialism? |
| Gray, Morgan | Psychology | Organic food and the Valuing of Intrinsic Goals |
| Gregory, Elizabeth | Psychology | Does attachment style influence the gist perception of facial emotions? |
| Grills, Ryan | Peter B. Gustavson School of Business | Chinas Growing Debt is a Global Problem |
| Hack, Karine | English | History's Playthings; Exploring Trauma through Thing Theory |
| Haisell, Camille | History | Systemic Racism & Mental Health: Effects of 1940s Canadian Policies of Dispossession and Internment on Japanese Canadians in BC Psychiatric Care |
| Harrington, Marisa | Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education | The Effects of Multiple Concussions on Heart Rate Variability |
| Haupt, Alexandra | Sociology | Doing” Sociology: Undergraduate Learning through Community Engaged Research |
| Hiebert, Avery | Computer Science | Using independent component analysis to investigate hidden states of an LSTM performing sentiment analysis |
| Higham-Leisen, Pascale | Art History and Visual Studies | Neuroaesthetics and Vulnerability in Early Modern and Renaissance Art |
| Hills, Rory | Chemistry | Evaluation of real-time drug-checking technologies |
| Hogan, Mikaila | Anthropology | HIV in Older Adults |
| Horne, Christopher | English | A Common Objective: Ideological Resistance in the Poetry of Louis Zukofsky and George Oppen |
| Horning, Carilia | English | Place-Based Literature Instruction for Elementary School Children |
| Hrusik, Curtis | Philosophy | Moving Beyond Consistency: Motivations for a Non-Explosive Logical Consequence Relation |
| Hunter, Stuart | French | « L'extrait théâtral dans le Mercure de France, 1724-1744 » which is in English "The theatrical extract in the Mercure de France, 1724-1744" (Mercure de France italicized.) |
| Kapp, Sarah | Art History and Visual Studies | De-Mythicizing the Artist: How Gauguin Shaped his Identity in Response to the Emerging European Art Market |
| Kennedy, Jessica | Social Work | An Environmental Scan of Social Work Response to the Overdose Crisis in Canada |
| Kenyon, Madeleine | Philosophy | Forgiveness as a Societal Disservice: An Exploration of the Social Dangers of Forgiving Wrongdoers |
| Kirchner, Liam | Civil Engineering | Improving Emergency Water Treatment in Rohingyan Refugee Camps |
| Kopik, Bruna | Economics | Your cheque is in the mail: A theoretical study of remittances |
| Kuo, Tiffany | French | The representation of the Chiac vernacular, its speakers and other linguistic groups in Acadieman |
| Laird, Monica | History | “The Empire Traveller”: Purposeful Tourism in Western Canada, 1885 -1914 |
| Laketic, Katarina | Chemistry | Characterization of the neutral components of methylalumoxane using charge-tagging |
| Lang, David | History | A History of the Conflict Over Raw Log Exports in British Columbia |
| Leclerc, Etienne | Mathematics and Statistics | Switching in (m, n)-Mixed Graphs |
| Lee, Christopher | Mechanical Engineering | 3D-Bioprinting Brain Tumor Models for Screening Chemotherapeutic Agents |
| Li, YuQi | Biochemistry and Microbiology | Enhancing cancer immunotherapy by engineering T cells to express a dominant – negative form of Cbl-b |
| Light, Erin | Psychology | The development of Executive Functions and Pragmatic Skills in Preschoolers |
| Liu, Amy | Biology | Opsins in the dark: The evolution of light sensing proteins in three distantly related cavefish |
| Liu, Pengqi | Mathematics and Statistics | On R-Optimal Designs for Regression Models |
| Lloyd, Kelsey | Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education | Comparing Neural Activity Between Indoor and Outdoor Exercise Using a Portable EEG |
| Louie, Michaela | Priority Initiative - Child and Youth Care | Sisters Rising: Honouring Body and Land Sovereignty |
| Ma, Canice | Nursing | BRCA Consenting Seminar Outcomes Proposal |
| MacIlroy, Alycia | Greek and Roman Studies | Gendered Medicine: Exploring Female and Male Anatomy in Ancient Medical Texts |
| Marks, Lindy | History | An Analysis of Victorian Gender Norms: Narratives and Popular Representations of Maria Manning |
| Martin, Susan | Health Information Science | Identifying and Recommending tools to Evaluate the ‘Relationship-Centredness’ of Primary Care in BC |
| Maslova, Layma | Hispanic and Italian Studies | A City Loved to Death: The Impact of Overtourism on Barcelona |
| McDonald, Victoria | Earth and Ocean Sciences | Climate Sensitivity Dependence on Background Climate State |
| McMillan, Rachel | Political Science | The End of Interjections? An Analysis of Heckling in the Presence of More Women in Politics |
| Milligan, Maeve | Pacific and Asian Studies | Beef Noodles and Legal Policies: How the Chinese Government Supports Minority Groups in Shanghai |
| Moeller, Brandon | Biochemistry and Microbiology | A Misunderstood Granulocyte: Investigating the Function of Thymic Eosinophils |
| Mooney, Colin | History | “Accio Memoria!”: Memorialization of Memory in Fiction |
| Morgan, Jessica | Nursing | An Intergenerational Community Choir for Persons with AD and their Caregivers |
| Naumann, Trevor | Music | Analysis of Vocal Production Techniques |
| Nazaroff, Isaac | Latin American Studies | Latin America or Indo-America: Reclaiming an Indigenous Identity |
| Nicholson, Maxwell | Economics | Game Theory and the Blockchain: Applying Behavioural Economics to Consensus Mechanisms |
| Niwa-Heinen, Musa | English | Stella Benson: Canonizing her Contributions within Modernist Feminism |
| Noble, Casandra | Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education | Physical literacy in middle-late childhood: Relationships among motor competence, perceived motor competence, task value and physical activity |
| Nyren, Jack | Geography | Cities and Space: A study of Centennial Square’s Past, Present, and Future |
| O'Briain, Teaghan | Physics and Astronomy | Adversarial Learning applied to Stellar Spectral analyses |
| Oosterman, Justin | Pacific and Asian Studies | The artificial decline of English song titles in Japanese music during the Pacific War |
| O'Shea, Sadee | Peter B. Gustavson School of Business | Smoking Kills: A Look at the Tobacco Inudstry in France |
| Pandora, Passia | Philosophy | A Critique of Materialism in Philosophy of Mind |
| Perks, Nelson | Biology | Investigating the impacts of algae density on coral recruitment following the 2015-2016 El Niño |
| Porteous, Isabelle | French | Wise Woman: How Matriarchal Knowledge Contributes to Feminist Discourse in Québecois literature |
| Preissl, Dayton | Mathematics and Statistics | Confinement Properties in Strongly Magnetized Plasmas |
| Reck, Nicole | Linguistics | BAG, BEG, BAGEL: The Case of Victoria Undergrads |
| Reid, Clara | Environmental Studies | Pollination and Floral Longevity |
| Robertson, Emma | Medieval Studies | Hounds, Guardians, and Oracles: Dogs as Symbols in the Middle Ages |
| Rowley, Jaden | Geography | Modelling Nutrient Transport Processes In the Lake Winnipeg Watershed |
| Russell, Sarah | Social Work | Public Discourses on Opioid Replacement Therapy in the Prison System |
| Ruszel, Julian | Pacific and Asian Studies | The Neoliberalization of Collectivist Family Structures in Japan |
| Savidge, Elena | Earth and Ocean Sciences | Characterizing an earthquake triplet in Iran using InSAR imagery |
| Sawyer, Austin | Mechanical Engineering | Development of a Computer Modelling Technique to Investigate Reverse Total Shoulder Replacement |
| Schmidt-Brown, Abigail | Religious Studies | Antisemitism in the Dialogue Surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict |
| Silvera, Alexis | Curriculum and Instruction | Accessibility Innovation in Higher Education Through Telepresence Robots |
| Sinclair, Charlotte | Public Health and Social Policy | Global Child Rights Dialog |
| Snowden-Richardson, Taylor | Medical Sciences | Effects of 3D-MOT Training on Reaction Time in Varsity Swimmers |
| Spence, Erin | Political Science | The Impact of Electoral Systems in European Parliament Elections |
| Stewart, Lexy | Geography | A Roof over their Heads: Exploring Housing Precarity for Vulnerable Populations |
| Thompson, Lyndsee | Political Science | The Intersection of Privacy Norms: Social Media Use and Data Protection in Malaysia |
| Toth, Amy-Lynn | Music | The influence of Eastern European Folk Music on the 2nd Violin Concerto of Béla Bartók |
| Travers-Smith, Hana | Environmental Studies | Population Dynamics of green alder and white spruce in the NWT in response to climate change. |
| Trimble, Brooklynn | Economics | E-Cigarettes and Body Weight: The Impact on American Youth and Young Adults |
| Tso, Lois | Civil Engineering | Innovative non-destructive techniques for assessing quality of building envelopes |
| Ugalde, Allyson | Linguistics | How will we sound? A sociolinguistic study of /t/ in developing speakers |
| Van Der Meer, Kastle | Gender Studies | Forced Sexual Labour Under the National Socialist German Workers' Party: Brothels in Nazi Concentration Camps and the Trauma they Inflicted on Women |
| Vorster, Ryan | Mechanical Engineering | Force control of robotic polishing system using a 6-axis load cell |
| Walters, Andraya | Nursing | Voices in Motion: An Intergenerational Community Choir for Persons with AD and their Caregiver |
| Wells-Durand, Emma | Biology | Exploring the use of base editing for correction of mutations in Gaucher disease |
| Whitehead, Paige | Environmental Studies | Microorganisms and Indigenous Soils: Past and present Relationships with Ancient Soils |
| Whitehorne, Lee | Linguistics/Music | The Sweet Sounds of Syntax: Neural Processing of Hierarchical Structures in Music |
| Wong, Dee Dee | Health Information Science | Predicting the sustainability of mobile health applications |
| Woods, Mackenzie | Biology | The effects of anthropogenic underwater noise on plainfin midshipman fish reproductive behaviour |
| Yang, Jitong (Jeff) | Economics | The Long-Term Effects of Population Aging on Chinese Financial Markets: A Quantitative Analysis |
| Yoon-Henderson, Hanum | Philosophy | Cultural Relativism Compatible with Global Feminism? |
| Yoshida, Kaya | Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education | Long-term monitoring of fall risk in older adults using walking gait and clinical measures |
| Young, Penelope | Biology | Characterizing the effect of tyrosine phosphorylation on the assembly of a7 and a4B2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in model HEK293T cells |