We always knew that you can get there from here, but it turns out you can come from there and make it back, too -- and in a big way.

So warm congratulations to Angela Wanhalla, who has just been awarded the 2008 The Rowheath Trust Award and Carl Smith Medal from the University of Otago in New Zealand, where she holds an appointment in history.

Angela began life (we like to think) as a post-doctoral fellow in this very department, working with Canada Research Chair Jim Miller on matters of native-newcomer relations. Having lit up our firmament for a year, Angela returned to her native New Zealand to teach and research the histories of cultural encounter in that country’s colonial past, specifically gender, race and colonialism in 19th century New Zealand. She is also interested in the indigenous history of the North American West, and the history of intimacy, particularly interracial relationships.

For someone as outgoing and fun as Angela is, she gets a helluva lot of work done. The award and medal recognises her outstanding early-career research performance at Otago, as did a highly competitive and prestigious Marsden Fast-Start Grant that Angela was awarded last year for a two-year project on the history of interracial intimacy in New Zealand between 1769 and 1969. Way to go, Angela!