uOttawa News

OTTAWA, May 8, 2014  —  University of Ottawa professor Pierre Anctil has been selected as this year’s winner of the Canada Prize in the Humanities by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences for his recently published book on the work of Jacob-Isaac Segal, a celebrated Montreal Jewish poet who wrote only in Yiddish.

The book, Jacob-Isaac Segal, 1896-1954 : un poète yiddish de Montréal et son milieu, paints a unique portrait of early 20th century Montreal and reflects the experiences of Jewish immigrants arriving in North America from Russia, Ukraine and Poland.

Furthermore, uOttawa alumnus and doctoral student in the Department of History Hugues Théorêt received the Prix du Canada en sciences sociales 2014 for his book Les chemises bleues : Adrien Arcand, journaliste antisémite canadien-français.

Each year, four prizes worth $2,500 are awarded to the best scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences that have received funding from the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program. The Canada Prize is awarded to books that make an exceptional contribution to scholarship, are engagingly written and enrich the social, cultural and intellectual life of Canada.

Pierre Anctil, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a full professor in the Department of History at the University of Ottawa. Jacob-Isaac Segal, 1896-1954 : Un poète yiddish de Montréal et son milieuis published by the Presses de l’Université Laval.

Read more about the prize on Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences website

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