Jocelyne Morin-Nurse
The University of Ottawa’s Excellence in Education prizes recognizes educators of exceptional quality, who provide outstanding teaching while maintaining a solid research program. Profiles of each of the nine prize winners in 2007 will appear in the Gazette over the coming months.
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Sylvie Perrier, a full-time professor in the Department of History and recipient of a University of Ottawa 2006-2007 Excellence in Education Prize, once thought her future as a chemist was laid out in front of her. But one day, while studying the discovery of the water molecule, she realized she was more interested in the discoverer, Antoine Lavoisier. The story of this 18th-century French aristocrat, who became the father of modern chemistry, changed the course of Perrier’s life.
“I dropped chemistry and left for Europe,” Professor Perrier says. “When I came back eight months later, I started a degree in history. From the first day, my goal was to become a university professor. My experiences in Europe gave me a cultural foundation – I had seen the great cathedrals and museums, and European geography had become much more familiar to me. Those eight months were both a transition and a preparation.”
Now beginning her eighth year of teaching, Perrier’s interest in historical figures inspires her determination to bring them to life against the background of their times in the imaginations of her 21st-century students. She draws on comparisons with the modern world, careful to make clear that it is not a matter of equating them.
“History is of no interest if it’s just a list of dates, facts and events,” says Perrier. “The value of history is that it makes us think about our own society: are there similarities that suggest solutions for the present, are there differences that help us understand what’s original now? History gives perspective to our view of the world.”
To enhance the discussion, Perrier studies 18th-century family relationships in the Toulouse region of France. She draws on contemporary sociology to examine the past and discover the solutions that the era’s blended families adopted to manage their situations.
Surrounded by myriad projects, Perrier makes good use of a rigorous sense of organization and an acute ethical awareness to stay balanced while dealing with an enormous quantity of work.
“You have to be as efficient as possible if you’re going to maximize your leisure time,” she notes. “Downtime is extremely important. If you want to think clearly, you have to keep your head clear and balanced. Then when you work, you work well, and when it’s time to relax, you really relax. I try to make learning fun for my students, but I’m strict about late work and plagiarism. My sense of humour has clearly defined ethical limits! I think it’s important, perhaps even reassuring, for students to understand that the professor has an ethical attitude, that there’s fairness and not favouritism in the classroom.”
