2025

The call for student applications for the 2025 Kenneth Dion and Brendan G. Rule awards will open April 2025.

2024

The Brendan Gail Rule Award and the Kenneth Dion Awards recognize student excellence. These awards, named to honour the memory of two Canadian social & personality psychologists who made outstanding contributions to the field during their careers, recognize the best undergraduate (the Kenneth Dion Award) and the best graduate student (the Brendan Gail Rule Award) submissions. The Social & Personality section executive adjudicated the competition, selecting a winner for each award. Each winner received a $200 cash prize. The 2024 winners are listed below.

Kenneth Dion Award winner: Saghar Shadabi (Carleton University)

Brendan Gail Rule Award winner: Erin White (University of Manitoba)

2023

In 2023 we brought back the Brendan Gail Rule Award and the Kenneth Dion Award to recognize student excellence. These awards, named to honour the memory of two Canadian social psychologists who made outstanding contributions to the field during their careers, recognize the best undergraduate (the Kenneth Dion Award) and the best graduate student (the Brendan Gail Rule Award) submissions. The awards are based on the quality of the abstract submissions that were first rated by 2-3 independent reviewers. Then, the winners were selected from a list of finalists by our section’s executive committee (blinded review). Each winner will receive a $200 cash prize and their names will be posted on the ‘Student Award Winners’ section of our website.

Kenneth Dion Award winner: Gale Chong (University of British Columbia, Okanagan)

Kenneth Dion Award Runner-up: Tayler Wells (Carleton University)

2022

In 2022 we brought back annual awards to our section to recognize student excellence. In the past, our section offered the Brendan Gail Rule Award and the Kenneth Dion Award to recognize student excellence. These awards, named to honour the memory of two Canadian social psychologists who made outstanding contributions to the field during their careers, recognize the best undergraduate (the Kenneth Dion Award) and the best graduate student (the Brendan Gail Rule Award) submissions. Although we held off opening applications for these legacy awards until 2023, in the interim, we are offering student awards for ‘Best Poster’ and ‘Best Talk’ in the Social and Personality section at the CPA 2022 Convention.

The awards were based on the quality of the abstract submissions that were first rated by 2-3 independent reviewers. Then, the winners were selected from a list of finalists by our section’s awards committee.

Two winners were selected for the ‘2022 CPA Social & Personality Best Student Poster’ award and one winner was selected for the ‘2022 CPA Social & Personality Best Talk’ award. Each winner will receive a $100 cash prize and their names will be posted on the ‘Student Award Winners’ section of our website.

‘2022 CPA Social & Personality Best Student Poster’ Award Winners

Kesaan Kandasamy, Ryerson University,
The Effects of Discrimination on the Psychological Distress of Chinese Canadians during COVID-19
Co-authors: Lixia Yang, Ling Na, Peizhong Wang, Weiguo Zhang

Rama Eloulabi & Bidushy Sadika, Western University,
Dehumanizing “Others” during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review
Co-author: Victoria Esses

‘2022 CPA Social & Personality Best Talk’ Award Winner

Yekta Sharafaddin-zadeh, University of Alberta, Canadians’ Perceptions of and Attitudes towards Face Masks on Twitter During the First Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic: The Rise of Anti-Mask Sentiment
Co-authors: Kimberly Noels, Heather Young-Leslie, Veronica Slam, Denilson Barbosa, Nigel Lou, Ying Shan Doris Zhang

Previous Award Winners

The following list is incomplete. If you have information that would fill in the gaps, please send it to Cheryl.Harasymchuk@carleton.ca.

Brendan Gail Rule Award

• 2024: Erin White
• 2023: Morgan Joseph
• …
• 2011: Sean P. Mackinnon (Dalhousie U.); Finalist: Régine Debrosse (McGill U.)
• 2010:
• 2009: Karen O’Brian (U. of Manitoba), Katia Keefer (Queen’s U.) [co-winners]
• 2008: Johanna Peetz (Wilfrid Laurier U.); Finalist: Paula Brochu (The U. of Western Ontario)
• 2007: Rebecca Malhi (U. of Calgary); Finalist: Simon Pierre-Harvey (U. du Québec à Montréal)
• 2006: Benjamin Giguere (York U.); Finalists: Johanna Peetz (Wilfrid Laurier U.), Alishia Alibhai (U. of Calgary)
• 2005: Lianne McLellan (Queen’s U.)
• 2004: Matt Burnett (U. of Saskatchewan)
• 2003: Sarah Fraser (Concordia U.); Finalist: Vassili Spyropoulous (Wilfrid Laurier U.)
• 2002: Heather Lawson (Wilfrid Laurier U.)
• 2001: Faby Gagne (McGill U.)
• 2000: Kimberly Burton (McGill U.); Finalists: Anne L. Israeli (Dalhousie U.), John Kowal (U. of Ottawa)
• 1999: Winnifred R. Louis (McGill U.); Finalists: Cheryl Terrance (Carleton U.), Lesley M. Akst (The U. of Western Ontario)
• 1998: Christina Simms (U. of Calgary); Finalists: Stacey Nairn (U. of Calgary)
• 1997: Lisa Sinclair (U. of Waterloo)
• 1996: Tamarha Pierce (McGill U.)
• 1995: Yves Chantal (Quebec – Montreal); Finalists: Silvana Macdonald (York U.), Jennifer Watson (Simon Fraser U.)
• 1994: Sheree Kwong See (McMaster U.)
• 1993: Pierre Foisy (Concordia U.)
• 1992:
• 1991: Cathy Giordano (U. of Waterloo); Finalists: Neal J. Roese (The U. of Western Ontario), Krista Trobst (U. of British Columbia)

Kenneth Dion Award

• 2024: Saghar Shadabi
• 2023: Gale Chong
• …
• 2011: An Gie Yong (Wilfrid Laurier U.)
• 2010: Rachel Ross (U. of Calgary); Finalist: Cindy Ward (U. of Waterloo)
• 2009: Leah Funk (U. of Winnipeg; Finalist: Gavin Docherty (U. of British Columbia)
• 2008:
• 2007:
• 2006: Annette Gagnon (U. of Manitoba); Finalists: Danielle DeSorcy (U. of Saskatchewan), Justin Friesen (U. of Winnipeg)