Fulbright Canada Research Chair to explore concepts of justice and reconciliation

King’s is pleased to welcome Dr. Cristina Stanciu as first Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Justice and Reconciliation for the 2024 Winter term.

Dr. Stanciu says she is delighted to have been selected. “I look forward to working with faculty and students at King's, as well as community members, and to sharing my current work on the project, Indigenous Education and the Literature of the Boarding Schools in the U.S. and Canada. Most importantly, I look forward to listening and learning. This is a wonderful opportunity for research collaborations in Indigenous and First Nations Studies, as well as dialogue with local Indigenous community members, which I'm very much looking forward to meeting,” says Dr. Stanciu.

As the Fulbright Canada Research Chair, Dr. Stanciu will explore concepts of justice and reconciliation, with a special focus on the role of religion and religious institutions in truth and reconciliation processes in the context of colonialism and racism in the Americas or globally.

“Truth-seeking and truth-telling are fundamental to King’s mission as a university. Considering the role Catholic educational institutions played historically to sustain the structures, mentalities, and practices of colonial racism and violence, we believe that King’s has a special responsibility to serve as a forum for truth and reconciliation.  The decision to dedicate our first ever Fulbright Canada Research Chair to the theme Justice and Reconciliation will, we hope, be seen as a tangible sign of our sincere commitment to understanding, dialogue and healing,” says Dr. Robert Ventresca, Interim Vice President and Academic Dean.

During her tenure as the Fulbright Research Chair, Dr. Stanciu will conduct her research project, Indigenous Education and the Literature of the Boarding Schools in the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, she will mentor students in research and related activities and engage with the King’s community through knowledge mobilization events.

Jennifer Slay, Director of the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization office at King’s, says her office is very excited to meet and work with Dr. Stanciu. “The work that they are doing, the first of its kind, will hopefully forge a path to ensure that we are preserving the true histories of our Indigenous brothers and sisters.  History can be painful, it can be ugly and it can be disgraceful.  However, understanding and recognizing true history will help us to prevent a repeat of the horrors of our past,” says Slay.

Dr. Ventresca offers a special word of acknowledgement and gratitude owed to King’s Research Facilitators, Ramanpreet Grewal and Rodney Parker. “They played an instrumental role in helping to articulate the thematic focus of the Research Chair, and in coordinating critical logistics over many months to make this important initiative possible,” he says.

Dr. Stanciu received her PhD at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has received an MA in English from Emporia State University, an MA in American Cultural Studies and BA in English from AI. I. Cuza University. She is an Associate Professor of English and the Director of the Humanities Research Center at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). In April 2023, the College of Humanities and Sciences awarded her the Distinguished Service Award.

Dr. Stanciu is an immigrant scholar of Indigenous and Multiethnic Literatures of the United States. Her scholarly and teaching expertise is in Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS), Multiethnic Literatures of the U.S. (MELUS), Progressive Era literature and visual culture (especially silent film), and critical theory. Dr. Stanciu has brought her areas of expertise together in four books (two monographs, one scholarly edition, and one edited collection), three edited journal special issues, over a dozen peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and other contributions that illuminate the extensive histories of Indigenous and immigrant literatures, and provide new ways to read comparatively across several fields.

Dr. Stanciu also contributes to several fields through her national service. She is the current editorial board member of PMLA, the journal of the Modern Language Association of America, and NAIS, and book review editor of MELUS from 2020-2023.

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Stanciu to the King’s community in this very important role.