Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes

Cecilia Benoit et H. Nigel Thomas

Photo: Photo : Université de Victoria (en haut) et Marc Robitaille (en bas)

Current winners

Dr. Cecilia Benoit (Social Sciences and Humanities)

Cecilia Benoit, of Mi’kmaw and European ancestry, holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto. She is currently a Scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Research and professor emeritus of Sociology at the University of Victoria, BC. Cecilia has pioneered academic inquiry on intersections of gender, class and Indigeneity. She conducted ground-breaking research showing the contributions of midwifery as a profession to the care of pregnant women and families. Her research has also identified structural barriers for urban Indigenous women and young people confronting stigmas. In 2020, Cecilia was awarded the Killam Prize in Social Sciences as well as the senior researcher Trailblazer Award in Population and Public Health Research.

For more information about Cecilia’s work, visit the University of Victoria website.

H. Nigel Thomas (Arts)

H[ubert] Nigel Thomas emigrated from St Vincent and the Grenadines to Canada in 1968. He is a graduate of Concordia, McGill and Université de Montréal. He taught English and French at the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal and was later a professor of United States literature at Université Laval. He is the author of six novels: Easily Fooled, Fate’s Instruments, No Safeguards, Return to Arcadia, Behind the Face of Winter and Spirits in the Dark; three collections of short fiction: When the Bottom Falls out and Other Stories, Lives: Whole and Otherwise, and How Loud Can the Village Cock Crow and Other Stories; two collections of poems: Moving through Darkness and The Voyage. He is a recipient of the The Montréal Association of Black Business Persons and Professionals’ Jackie Robinson Professional of the Year Award (2000); Université Laval’s Hommage aux créateurs; the Black Theatre Workshop’s Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award, and the Quebec Writers’ Federation Judy Mappin Community Award.

For more information about H. Nigel Thomas work, visit his website.

What is this prize?

The Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes are awarded to two persons – one in the arts and the other in the social sciences and humanities, who have distinguished themselves by their outstanding achievements. The prizes are intended to encourage ongoing contributions to Canada's cultural and intellectual heritage.

These prizes are administered by the Canada Council in collaboration with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The winners are chosen by a peer assessment committee, which is appointed jointly by the Canada Council and the SSHRC.

Who created this prize?

These prizes are funded by an endowment from the Molson Foundation.