This intersection between multiculturalism, religion and public memory is the focus of a major new study about to be undertaken by U of T’s Pamela Klassen, a professor in the department of the study of religion. Klassen has been awarded €250,000 (about $353,000 CDN) by Germany’s Humboldt Foundation to conduct a five-year collaborative project that will bring together an international group of scholars and students “with a particular interest in how the contested – and sometimes celebrated – categories of religion and multiculturalism shape, provoke and complicate projects of public memory,” says Klassen. She is one of only 11 researchers – out of an international field of 72 nominees – to be awarded the 2015 Anneliese Maier Research Award from the foundation, which seeks to promote the internationalization of the humanities and socials sciences in Germany. Klassen will work closely with colleagues at Germany’s University of Tübingen.

Pamela Klassen’s passion for teaching and research has also brought her the 2015 Northrop Frye Award. The award recognizes distinguished achievements in linking teaching and research. Klassen, from the department for the study of religion, was nominated by some of her graduate students. The Northrop Frye Award is presented along with several other faculty, staff and student awards under the banner of Awards of Excellence. A complete list of this year’s recipients and their citations will be available soon on the Awards of Excellence website. This award program annually recognizes the outstanding members of the University of Toronto community who have made rich and meaningful contributions to the University, their communities and to the world.

Prof. Pamela Klassen is an Affiliated Faculty member of the Centre for the Study of the United States, Munk School of Global Affairs.