2016 Dodds Prize Winner

It is my great pleasure to announce that Allison Mills has been awarded the Dodds Prize for 2016 for her paper "Learning to Listen: Archival Sound Recordings and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property." Allison will be graduating this December with MAS and MLIS degrees from UBC, and her paper was submitted by Jessica Bushey. 

Instituted in 2011, the Dodds Prize recognizes superior research and writing on an archival topic by a student enrolled in a Master's level archival studies program at a Canadian university. The award honours Gordon Dodds (1941-2010) who was the first President of the ACA, and Archivaria's longest-serving general editor. The submissions received for the 2015/16 academic year were reviewed by an adjudication committee consisting of Amy Marshall Furness (Archivaria Exhibition Review Editor / Art Gallery of Ontario), Michael Gourlie (Provincial Archives of Alberta), Kathryn Harvey (ACA Board designate / University of Guelph), and Rodney Carter (Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph).  I would like to thank the adjudication committee for their service.

The paper will be published in the Spring 2017 issue of Archivaria and the award will be formally presented at the ACA Conference in Ottawa next June.  The citation reads:

"This paper deftly explores the complexities at the intersection of Indigenous and Western notions of property rights while navigating issues surrounding the complex medium of sound recordings. Drawing on Canadian and international ethnographic research and legal scholarship regarding intellectual property rights from Indigenous and Western perspectives, Mills provides insight, perspective and a path forward for Canadian archival institutions with respect to their management of sound recordings involving Indigenous peoples.  This paper is particularly relevant and timely in the current context of Canada's truth and reconciliation process."

Congratulations, Allison, on your excellent work!

Jeremy Heil
Managing Editor, Archivaria