Book by BU professor wins Outstanding Scholarship Prize

BRANDON – A book by Brandon University (BU) professor Dr. Corinne L. Mason has been recognized with a national award.

Mason was the recipient of the Outstanding Scholarship Prize, presented by the Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes Association (WGSRF), at last week’s Congress for the Social Sciences and Humanities in Vancouver. Mason’s book, Manufacturing Urgency: The Development Industry and Violence Against Women, was one of 16 nominated works.

Published by the University of Regina Press in 2017 and available online at Amazon.ca, Manufacturing Urgency looks at three case studies. Mason uses these case studies to examine how the agendas of development organizations and government entities influence which issues surrounding violence against women are addressed as high priorities by those institutions.

In her congratulatory letter, WGSRF President Dr. Connie Guberman credits Mason for shining “a critical and conceptually stunning light” on anti-violence policies that serve hegemonic purposes rather than the needs of those they are designed to protect. On behalf of the Outstanding Scholarship Prize Committee, Guberman expresses hope that the book will “not only spark institutional change, but will inspire other scholars to draw on the wealth of theoretical and methodological innovation” that Mason utilizes.

The roots of the Outstanding Scholarship Prize date to 2002, when the WGSRF launched a prize to recognize exceptional books. A widening of the criteria in 2011 opened the competition to documentary films and edited collections as well as monographs. Mason, an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Gender and Women’s Studies program at BU, is the first Brandon University recipient of the award, which comes with a $200 cash prize.

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