Elizabeth Willis, a PhD candidate studying French in the Department of French and Italian, has been awarded the Bourse Gaston-Miron grant from the Association Internationale des Études Québécoises (AIEQ) and the Centre de Recherche Interuniversitaire sur la Littérature et la Culture Québécoises (CRILCQ). This $5,000 grant is offered to only one international applicant per year to pursue research on Quebec in the humanities or social sciences. Willis will spend the summer in Quebec and conduct research for her dissertation on representations of girlhood in 20th-century Quebec literature and film.
 
“This award is really huge for me!” Willis said. “It is a big stamp of approval for my research, because the selection committee includes important scholars from my field; the fact that they think my project is interesting enough to merit their support is a tremendous honor.”
 
Willis will spend the summer developing her dissertation project through work with her research supervisor in Quebec, attending conferences and networking with other scholars. “I also hope to visit important historical sites and places from the works I’m studying, such as the Lac Saint-Jean region in northern Quebec, and of course I will spend time making the most of local archives and libraries,” she said. “I am very much looking forward to experiencing Quebec culture up close and personal for the first time!”