Former PhD student and now alumna, Saira Fitzgerald, was awarded the University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work at the Doctoral Level at the Fall Convocation ceremony on Nov. 18.
Fitzgerald said that the medal presentation left her with an “entire feeling of disbelief and a sense of I must be dreaming. This can’t be real.”
Prof. Graham Smart, Fitzgerald’s supervisor from the School of Linguistics and Language Studies, says: “Saira is an exceptional student, and working with her over the last four years has been a pleasure and a privilege. As for the final outcome of all Saira’s efforts–her dissertation–I can only repeat the words of the external examiner, Dr. Tony McEnery, from Lancaster University in the UK, “I thought this [dissertation] was a magnificent piece of work.”
Fitzgerald’s research focused on the International Baccalaureate and how it is talked about and thought about in Canada. “I did this by analyzing the language used to talk about the IB, identifying recurring linguistic patterns in order to provide some insight into the kinds of social values associated with the IB, which help to position it well beyond simply one type of school curriculum among many others,” explains Fitzgerald.
She adds: “Canada has the second highest number of IB schools in the world (the highest is the US) and the majority are publicly-funded schools. This growth (approximately 42 in 1992 to 381 today) seems to have occurred with very little public scrutiny or debate, and as such my research should be of interest and importance to not only policy makers but also the tax-paying general public.”
Fitzgerald says she was extremely fortunate to have Graham Smart as her supervisor. “His breadth of knowledge, sense of humour and calm demeanour made this PhD journey a really enjoyable and stimulating experience. He was always available to help, no matter what day or time or even country. His primary interest was always the needs of the student. I am very grateful to him for taking the chance on supervising this mature (and sometimes ornery) graduate student.”
Fitzgerald has been at Carleton University on and off for 35 years and earned her BA, MA and PHD here. “I feel I am the physical manifestation of Carleton’s motto, “Ours the Task Eternal.”
“I’ve spent most of my life at Carleton, so when people ask me “where are you from?”, I feel the only true response is “I’m from Carleton!” A whole lifetime of fond memories with three degrees earned here. I also met my husband at Carleton, where he was doing his MA in philosophy. So Carleton is the source or fountain for both my academic and personal life.”
As for her PhD program in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies, Fitzgerald said she would absolutely recommend this program to prospective students.
“I found the way this program is structured extremely beneficial (and clearly achievable!). A lot of thought has gone into how best to help the student and each year of the program is broken into smaller chunks which all feed into the final giant dissertation. Through this type of scaffolding, the student is able to work on smaller bits which then all serve as important parts for the final whole. It’s a great program.”
Now that she has graduated, Fitzgerald is considering pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship since she says that her research only scratched the surface and there is so much more to do. She adds: “But in the meantime, I will be looking for a job.”
Monday, November 20, 2017 in Awards, News, Research
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