UNB Research

As part of our 2023 Research Celebration Week, we are highlighting the most recent recipients of two of UNB’s major research awards: The University Research Scholar award, and the Award for Excellence in Research.

Dr. Donald Wright is the 2023 recipient of UNB’s University Research Scholar award, which "honours members of the active faculty complement of the University of New Brunswick (UNB) who have demonstrated a consistently high level of scholarship, and whose research is, or has the potential to be, of international stature."

When presenting Dr. Wright with his award, UNB president, Dr. Paul J. Mazerolle, noted the following:

A Canadian historian, Dr. Wright is broadly interested in post-Confederation political, intellectual and cultural history. He is the author of three books – Canada: A Very Short Introduction (2020); Donald Creighton: A Life in History (2015); and The Professionalization of History in English Canada (2005). He is also the editor or co-editor of two books – Symbols of Canada (2018) and Canadian Studies: An Introductory Reader (2004). His biography of Donald Creighton was a finalist for the prestigious Canada Prize awarded to the best book in French or English in the humanities and social sciences in Canada.

He is currently writing a SSHRC-funded biography of the historian Ramsay Cook (1931-2016). Professor Ramsay Cook was a key figure in the re-writing of history in English Canada from the early 1960s to his retirement in the 1990s.

Dr. Wright has co-edited the Journal of Canadian Studies (2005-08) and Acadiensis (2019-21); he was the review editor of the Canadian Historical Review (2016-22); and he was elected vice-president of the Canadian Historical Association in 2022 and is becoming its president in 2023.

In addition to his ongoing research in Canadian history, Dr. Wright studies climate politics with a special focus on climate federalism in Canada. His writing on climate politics has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Literary Review of Canada, CBC.ca, and Yale Climate Connections (YCC), a climate communications initiative of the Yale School of the Environment. In 2021, he was invited to be a regular contributor to the YCC.

In 2022, he was invited to prepare a reader in climate politics for Broadview Press. It will examine climate politics from the top-down at the international, national and sub-nation level, from climate diplomacy, climate treaties and UNFCCC to climate politics and climate federalism in Canada and New Brunswick. In addition, it will examine climate politics from the bottom-up, including climate movements, climate strikes and climate writing.

A heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Wright on this achievement.