175th anniversary: Older Stories

Growing Excellence: the Newly-Renovated Johnson Greenhouse and Laboratories

In addition to a revamped Library and Learning Commons, Bishop’s 175th anniversary year has also seen the completion of the newly-renovated Johnson building greenhouse and laboratories, reinforcing Bishop’s commitment to support our students in their pursuit for academic excellence. These state-of-the-art facilities will provide exceptional resources for learning, teaching, and research. In turn, this will allow students to unleash their curiosity, creativity and innovation. Continue Reading…

Youth supporting Youth: The Mae Sot Education Project

Ever since the military took control of Burma in 1962, more than a million people have been forced from their homelands to seek refuge in Thailand. Living on the fringe of society, these individuals, especially the youth, have shown strength and determination to learn and build a better future for themselves and their country. Inspired by this resolve, the Mae Sot Education Project (MSEP) was born in 2003 with the mission to provide support to the Burmese through the education of migrant and refugee children to help them create a free, democratic, and inclusive society. Continue Reading…

Peak Physics: When Science Meets Mountains

When Dr. Valerio Faraoni isn’t teaching physics and astronomy students in the department he chairs, researching cosmology and gravitation, or giving seminars across the globe, you can find him climbing and hiking mountains. Combining his love of physics and mountaineering, his latest and sixth book to be published, “Alpine Physics”, applies physics and basic science to the alpine environment. “I’ve been mountaineering for a long time, about 30 years, and I’ve been doing physics for even longer,” Faraoni explains. “I wanted to bring the two together in this book.” Continue Reading…

Getting down to Business: Experiential Learning in the WSB

A well-established and renowned force in the world of business education, the Williams School of Business (WSB) has a clear mission: bring real-world experience into the classroom. Making these experiences come to life requires the passionate dedication of Experiential Learning (EL) Coordinator, Charlene Marion.

A Bishop’s alumna, Marion works with professors, professionals, alumni, and local companies to implement experiential learning opportunities for students of the business school. These opportunities span case competitions, guest-speakers, field trips, applied research projects, internships, and community service learning. This breadth and variety of experiences is what sets the WSB apart from other schools. Continue Reading…

Experiential Learning: Testing the Waters with UBERG

One of the best ways to discover what you have an affinity for is to get your feet wet and try something new. Students involved in the Undergraduate Bishop’s Earth Research Group (UBERG) take this quite literally. UBERG was launched with the goal of providing deep and meaningful research experience in applied geospatial subjects for undergraduate students. One of their latest projects, codenamed UBERGaiter, is an aquatic drone built to map and identify the prevalence of invasive aquatic plant species in lakes. Under the supervision of Professor Bruno Courtemanche, the group of 12 students from various fields including geography, computer science, and ecology invested more than 500 hours to build the drone from scratch. Continue Reading…

A Celebration of Academic Excellence

There is no greater event held on campus to highlight academic excellence than Convocation. On June 8th, graduates, faculty, staff, honourands, along with family and friends, gathered to celebrate the class of 2019’s academic accomplishments.

The Governor General’s Silver and Gold Medals for the highest standing upon graduation from an undergraduate and graduate program were awarded to Mathematics Honour student Courtney Drew and Master of Education student Jinjing Nie, respectively. The Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for outstanding academic proficiency in her final year of her undergraduate program was awarded to Psychology Honours student Julie Leboeuf. Continue Reading…

Faculty-student collaboration: QUSC

In February 2019, Bishop’s University students teamed up with students, professors researchers and practitioners from McGill University, Université de Montréal, Université de Sherbrooke and University of Ottawa to examine the effects of globalization on international security and the security functions of the nation-state in different regions around the world during the second annual Quebec Undergraduate Security Conference. This conference was initiated by Dr. Sarah-Myriam Martin-Brûlé, a Politics and International Studies Professor at Bishop’s as part of the International Security in the Globalization Era (ISGE) project which unites researchers from three Quebec-based Universities — McGill, University of Montreal, and Bishops. Continue Reading…

Spotlight on Dr. Vicki Chartrand, a criminologist of Bishop’s Sociology Department

Although teaching is a crucial part of Bishop’s University’s faculty, our professors are also deeply committed to research and knowledge mobilization. With the help of research grants, both professors and students are actively involved on campus working towards a better understanding of current affairs and raising awareness about crucial issues.

Prominent among our researchers on campus is Dr. Vicki Chartrand, a criminologist of Bishop’s Sociology Department. Dr. Chartrand recently received a grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture to conduct research on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Continue Reading…

Spotlight on Ed Pomykala: promoting athletic and academic excellence

Although several factors determine results in sports, coaches have a direct impact on the athletes. A long-standing figure in Bishop’s University student athletes’ experience is Ed Pomykala, who was the Gaiters’ Men’s basketball team Coach from 1984 to 2008, worked in Recruitment and Admissions afterwards until 2018, and remains a Consultant Coach with the Gaiters’ Women’s basketball team to this day, having also served as Sports Information Director and Interim Director of Athletics. As Bishop’s marks its 175th anniversary, Coach Pomykala talks about athletic excellence and his experience with our Gaiters. Continue Reading…

Chancellor’s Excellence Scholarship

As it has for generations, Bishop’s University continues to attract exceptional students of high academic standing. These impressive young students have a positive impact on their classmates, professors and the community and actively contribute to Bishop’s vision of providing the best undergraduate education in the country.

The Chancellor’s Excellence Scholarships were created to recognize and reward students with outstanding academic records and who truly embody Bishop’s fundamental values– sound learning, good citizenship, community, discovery, excellence, and sustainability.

First-year Bachelor of Science, double major Mathematics and Psychology student Georges-Philippe Gadoury-Sansfaçon is one of this year’s recipients. Continue Reading…

Up for Debate

From February 8-10, Students from Maple League Universities will be gathering at Bishop’s University, which is hosting the seventh annual Up for Debate week-end, to take part in a variety of debating activities, discussions and lectures on the theme of advancing human rights, and to benefit from a unique learning experience among peers from similar universities.

“Four similar Canadian liberal arts universities, Acadia, Bishop’s, Mount Allison, and St. Francis Xavier, have formed the Maple League because they believe that by collaborating rather than competing, they can offer students a richer and more relevant learning experience,” explains Dr. Jessica Riddell, of Bishop’s English Department and Executive Director of the Maple League. Continue Reading…

Haywood NorAm cross-country ski competition

From January 18th to January 20th, Bishop’s University hosted the Haywood NorAm cross-country ski qualifying competition, in partnership with the Club de Ski de Fond du Parc du Mont-Orford.

This event hosted over 350 top athletes from all over Canada. “Bishop’s University has a very beautiful campus. The fact that it has its own Fédération internationale de ski-certified (FIS) ski trail makes it easier to focus on school as well as the sport itself. I would like to see more universities and colleges have this kind of facility in the future”, said Étienne Hébert, the 21-year-old from Longueuil who finished first in the Final B Senior Men’s skate sprints on the first day of racing, and represented Team Canada at the World Championships in Utah in 2017.

Bishop’s University announced the construction of its cross-country ski trails, located at the Old Lennoxville Golf Club, in 2017 in partnership with Club de Ski de Fond du Parc du Mont-Orford. As the first Canadian University to boast an FIS-certified course, the university offers 7 km of groomed ski trails, of which more than 5 km are FIS-certified.

In 2020, Bishop’s will host the Eastern Canada Noram Race with over 600 athletes expected to compete.

Video credit: Angus Aitken

An outstanding research experience

Sherman Peabody was a science major at Bishop’s University when World War II broke out. Leaving school without finishing his degree, he became a Lancaster-bomber pilot. On July 28th, 1944, while taking part in a raid on Stuttgart, his plane was shot down over Eastern France by a German night fighter. Two of his crew managed to bail out. The bodies of three more crew members were found at the crash site. Peabody and the seventh crew member, James Harrington Doe, were missing and have never been found.

In 2016 the family of Sherman Peabody commissioned the History Department to find out the truth about their fate. Three undergraduate students followed the trail of Sherman Peabody from the Old Library in McGreer, to National Archives in Ottawa, to the Public Record Office in London, to Cirey (pop. 48) in the Vosges Mountains of France. Continue Reading…

Bishop’s Professors are definitely part of The Conversation

An essential part of Bishop’s University is our professors’ commitment to research and their expert knowledge. Being a member of the ‘The Conversation Canada’ allows Bishop’s professors and researchers to share new knowledge and insights to a wider public.

Many of our professors are active contributors. Dr. Trygve Ugland of the Department of Politics and International Studies and currently Vice-Principal, Government Relations and Planning has published two articles. His article ‘How Canada is inspiring Scandinavian countries on immigration’ describes how Canada is a ‘Policy Lender’ when it comes to immigration. Published on January 31st, 2018, his article has reached more than 60,000 readers.

Dr. David Webster, a professor in the Department of History, has published four articles so far. His article ‘Canada’s checkered history of arms sales to human rights violators’ provides context on why our country’s $ 12 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia raises controversy, and the history of Canadian arms sales. This article was published on February 13th, 2018 and has reached almost 20,000 readers.

These are but a few examples of the articles published by our outstanding professors. These articles have been republished by numerous prestigious publications such as the World Economic Forum, Maclean’s, Flipboard and the BBC, among others. The Conversation has truly given Bishop’s professors and researchers international exposure.

BU Singers and Music Department celebrate 50 years of musical excellence

As Bishop’s University marks its 175th anniversary, the Bishop’s University Singers and Music Department mark their 50th anniversary. Enjoy excerpts from the BU Singers’ recent Christmas concert along with this interview of Artistic Director Fannie Gaudette.

Paleomission: In Search of the Ancient Sloth

Paleomission: In Search of the Ancient Sloth, a new exhibition at the Musée de la nature et des sciences de Sherbrooke (MNS²), is based on research by Dr Matthew Peros, Bishop’s University’s Canada Research Chair on Climate and Environmental change, and presents findings on the remains of two species of prehistoric sloths found in underwater caves in Cuba. Continue Reading…