Media Releases

U of T Criminology student wins Trudeau Scholarship for research on women and violence

May 17, 2011

TORONTO, ON — The pres­ti­gious Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foun­da­tion Schol­ar­ship is being award­ed to Alexan­dra Lyso­va, a PhD stu­dent in crim­i­nol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, for her out­stand­ing research on women’s atti­tudes in sit­u­a­tions of recur­ring domes­tic vio­lence.

The Trudeau Schol­ar­ships, which include an $180,000 award and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be men­tored by a lead­ing schol­ar, is award­ed to Cana­di­an and for­eign PhD social sci­ences and human­i­ties stu­dents who exam­ine Cana­di­an con­cerns in fields such as envi­ron­ment, inter­na­tion­al affairs, cit­i­zen­ship and human rights. Four­teen stu­dents were named Trudeau Schol­ars this year.

Lysova’s research explores women’s involve­ment in inti­mate part­ner vio­lence using infor­ma­tion obtained in inter­views with incar­cer­at­ed women in Cana­da and the Unit­ed States.Through this, Lyso­va hopes to assess the inde­pen­dent con­tri­bu­tions of indi­vid­ual and rela­tion­ship char­ac­ter­is­tics to the dynam­ics of women’s involve­ment in inti­mate part­ner vio­lence.

“I am very much delight­ed and hon­oured to be award­ed such a pres­ti­gious Cana­di­an schol­ar­ship as the Trudeau Schol­ar­ship,” Lyso­va says. “It also val­i­dates the impor­tance of study­ing the issue of female involve­ment in vio­lence. I hope that the Trudeau Schol­ar­ship will assist me with the con­di­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties to reach my study objec­tives and career goals.”

The Foun­da­tion, estab­lished in 2001, is an inde­pen­dent and non-par­ti­san Cana­di­an char­i­ty. The newest Schol­ars will be intro­duced to the Trudeau com­mu­ni­ty at the Foundation’s Sum­mer Insti­tute will be held this year May 16–20 in Whistler, BC.

“Trudeau Schol­ar­ships not only accel­er­ate the careers of the doc­tor­al stu­dents who receive them, but also enable recip­i­ents to make a con­struc­tive con­tri­bu­tion to Cana­da and Cana­di­ans,” said Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent P.G. For­est. “The Trudeau Foun­da­tion rewards excel­lence and pro­vides young researchers with the best con­di­tions to ground their work in the real world.”

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Alexan­dra (Sasha) Lyso­va
647–857-7937 (cell)
sasha.lysova@utoronto.ca

Jes­si­ca Lewis
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions
Fac­ul­ty of Arts & Sci­ence
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
416–978-8887
jessica.lewis@utoronto.ca