Oral History Association Recognizes SPU Professor and Collaborators for Refugee Boulevard Project

OTTAWA, Tuesday, November 24, 2020 – Associate Professor Anna Sheftel has once again been recognized for her oral history project and audio tour, Refugee Boulevard: Making Montreal Home After the Holocaust.

This fall, the Oral History Association awarded the project with the Mason Multi-Media Award, which recognizes outstanding oral history projects that engage the public.

“The Oral History Association is my professional home, and is the largest organization bringing together oral historians across North America. It is an honour to be recognized by my peers who are leaders in this field,” said Sheftel.

“While this project centres the voices of Holocaust survivors, they are telling a universal story of immigrants and refugees remaking home and building community in Canada, as these populations have always done and continue to do today,” explains Sheftel. “This is history that is alive. I think this is why the project resonates so deeply with those who engage with it.”

Earlier this year, the Canadian Historical Association also recognized Refugee Boulevard for its innovative approach to public oral history.

About Refugee Boulevard

Refugee Boulevard is an innovative multimedia history project created by researchers from Dawson College, the Montreal Holocaust Museum and Saint Paul University’s Anna Sheftel, an associate professor in the School of Conflict Studies. Together, they worked with Holocaust survivors to create an oral history and audio tour of resettlement in Montreal after the Second World War. With this tour, members of the public can walk in the footsteps of these newcomers and see the neighbourhood through their eyes.

Refugee Boulevard was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership-Engage Grant.

To check out the project, please visit: refugeeboulevard.ca

For more information, please contact:

Julie Bourassa
Communications Officer, Saint Paul University
613-236-1393, ext. 2310
jbourassa@ustpaul.ca