IMRC Associate Director Kim Rygiel Wins Faculty Award

The IMRC is very pleased to announce that Kim Rygiel, Associate Director of the IMRC and Associate Professor in Laurier's Department of Political Science, is one of two recipients of Laurier’s 2019 Faculty Award for Service Excellence and Community Engagement. This award recognizes full-time Laurier faculty and librarians who, in addition to their teaching and scholarship, are leaders in service to the community and/or university.

Kim received the award for her exceptional work as a community-engaged instructor and researcher. 

Since 2016, Kim has led a graduate course on social advocacy for the Politics department’s Master of Applied Politics program. Students in her course undertake community service-learning projects in partnership with local community organizations, where they experience how changes at a global level make a local impact. Kim's classes have worked with the Community Coalition on Refugee and Immigrant Concerns and the World Refugee Day Planning Committee to organize local events and communications for the United Nations' World Refugee Day. They have also worked with Reception House Waterloo Region on initiatives to support refugees in their search for employment.       

Kim has also served as the graduate program advisor for Political Science and has been a member of admissions and examinations committees at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

Kim is primary investigator or co-investigator on four current projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Two grants will fund upcoming events at the Balsillie School, the Quilt of Stories performance on May 26, and Opening Communities to Newcomers, a series of workshops and public events being held June 5-7. Her other SSHRC-funded projects include “Living with others: Fostering cultural pluralism through citizenship politics,” which investigates why, how and under what conditions some communities are more open to cultural difference than others, and “Humanitarian Aid, Citizenship Politics, and the Governance of Syrian Refugees in Turkey,” which investigates the nature of humanitarian aid responses to emergencies involving Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Congratulations, Kim, on this well-deserved award!