Awards | Funding
At Toronto Metropolitan University, there are a number of funding opportunities – internal and external – available to graduate students. You may be eligible for financial support in the form of scholarships, awards, prizes, bursaries, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships. See Graduate Studies: Financing Your Studies.
You can also search the database of university-wide scholarships (some of which are available to graduate students) on AwardSpring (external link) .
Below we have listed some of the many opportunities available to ComCult students.
Dr. Liss Jeffrey Graduate Award
Dr. Liss Jeffrey (1954-2009) was a media scholar and director of the McLuhan Global Research Network at the University of Toronto, where she taught graduate seminars in “Understanding McLuhan and Media,” “Communications, History, Theory and Technology” and “New Media and Policy.” In 1997, Dr. Jeffrey directed a new media and policy think tank called the byDesign eLab. It provided a public space network used to advance civic participation, community development and cultural content creation. This work was done through the national not-for-profit group Electronic Commons/Agora électronique.
When Dr. Jeffrey passed away, her family donated the collection of materials she had assembled on media studies and on Marshall McLuhan. They also donated a sum of money to establish the Dr. Liss Jeffrey Graduate Award in her memory. The purpose of the award is to provide financial support and recognize the academic achievement of a current Toronto Metropolitan University-registered doctoral student enrolled in the Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture whose research is in study of new media and/or the making of new media works.
The value of the award is $18,000. The tenure of the award is one year (12 months), non-renewable. For full-time PhD students going into year 2, 3, or 4. An application is required (external link) .
- Applicant must be a registered doctoral student in the Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture on the Toronto Metropolitan University side of the program.
- Applicant must going into 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year of the doctoral program.
- Applicant's research is in study of new media and/or the making of new media work.
- Applicant must be enrolled full-time.
- Applicant must have a clear academic standing.
- Applicant must have a cumulative GPA of 3.67 or higher.
- Applicant must demonstrate financial need.
- Applicant must be a Canadian Citizen, Permanent Resident or Protected Person.
- Applicant must be a resident of Ontario1.
- Applicant must not have previously received a Dr. Liss Jeffrey Graduate Award.
The application documents include:
- A project title and abstract
- A research proposal that outlines the goals this award would help you achieve. The proposal must make clear the intended impact the research will have on the study new media or on the making of new media works.
- unofficial transcripts
1 Resident of Ontario at the time of the application, is defined by one of the following criteria:
- Student has always lived in Ontario (i.e. Ontario is the only Canadian province/territory that the student has lived in); or
- Ontario is the last province in which student has lived for 12 months in a row without being a full-time postsecondary student; or
- Student lives in Ontario now and has lived in Canada for less than 12 months in a row.
| Year | Recipient | Project |
| 2023 | Olivia Trono | Beyond “Make-Believe”: Exploring Magic in Popular Media Through Podcasting |
| 2022 | Azadeh Monzavi | Making Material Connections: Creating New Media Works through Craft |
| 2021 | Mykelle Pacquing |
A Socially Assistive Indigenous Language Robot Design |
| 2020 | Craig Fahner | Inverting the Algorithmic Gaze: Encountering Alternate Platforms Through Media Artworks |
| 2019 | Cyrus Sundar Singh | Performing the Documentary: Redefining the Relationship Between the Storyteller and the Audience |
| 2019 | Peter Zakrzewski | Designing the XR Medium: Five Rhetorical Perspectives for New Media Design |
| 2018 | Christopher Hugelmann | Digital games and affordances for identity formation and community. |
| 2017 | Kirsten Schaefer | Innovation adoption in the apparel industry: new media & emerging technology in the fashion designer's toolkit |
| 2016 | Alison Hedley | Popular materials: late-Victorian illustrated magazines and the technological imagination |
| 2015 | Margaret Reid | Investing in yourself: entrepreneurial journalism in the digital age |
| 2014 | Daniel Joseph | Distributing productive play: a materialist analysis of Steam |
| 2013 | Joey Jakob | Abu Ghraib and the commemorative violence of war trophy photography |
| 2012 | Steven May | The end(s) of analogue: access to CBC/Radio-Canada Television Programming in an era of digital delivery |
| 2011 | Stephen Broomer | Codes of the North: difficulty in the origins of the Canadian avant-garde film |
| 2010 | Bronwen Emma Doran | “Feeling” in modern dance print media: Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Maud Allan |
Communication and Culture Doctoral Dissertation Prize
To recognize outstanding acheivement in a Communication and Culture dissertation from among the Toronto Metropolitan University PhD graduates in Spring and Fall convocations that year. The prize is to be awarded in October annually.
This award was generously established in 2018 by Dr. Paul Moore, former Communication and Culture Program Director and Sociology professor.
The value of this award is $2500. Consideration is automatic; no application required.
| Year | Recipient | Dissertation Title |
| 2022 | Nataleah Hunter-Young | Brutal Aesthetics and the Visual Economy of Digital Black Death |
| 2021 | Safiyya Hosein |
The Iconic Muslim Superhero: Muslim Female Audience Perspectives of Marvel’s Muslim Superheroines |
| 2021 | Ryan Phillips | The Meaning of ‘Meat’: Boundary Objects in the Promotional Cultures of Plant-Based Meat |
| 2019 | Donna Gall | Frozen Out: Audiences, Affect and Women's Hockey |
| 2018 | Emilia Zboralska |
Telling Our Stories on the Web: Canadian English-Language Web Series and the Production of Culture Online |
Edward S. Rogers Sr. Graduate Student Fellowships
The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Graduate School Fellowship, first awarded in 2001, was established by Ted and Loretta Rogers to honour the contributions of Edward S. Rogers Sr. (1900-1939) to the Canadian communications industry. His alternating-current radio tube, perfected in 1925, revolutionized the home radio-receiver industry throughout the world.
The fellowships are available annually to recognize the accomplishments of Toronto Metropolitan University-based doctoral students in the Communication & Culture program who have demonstrated outstanding academic accomplishments in the communications field.
The value of this award is $20,000. The tenure of the award is one year (12 months). For students who have won an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Rogers endowment fund may provide the matching institutional funds. Consideration is automatic; no application required
| Year | Recent Recipients |
| 2023 | Noa Billick, Tarah Burke, Noor Dhaliwal, Megan Hughes, Alexander Hurezeanu, Samantha Morris Mastai, Alexandra Novitchkova, Kathleen Porter, Sahar Rezazadeh Tehrani, Victoria Sands, Sujeet Sennik, Olivia Trono, Rebecca Watson, Aurelia Wilson, Shanice Wolters |
| 2022 | Dana Cramer, Melody Devries, Shelley Haines, Kevin Hudes, Alexander Hurezeanu, Ferg Maxwell, Mel Racho, Cody Rooney, Kyle Rubini, Christiane Tarantino, Olivia Trono, Rebecca Watson, Shanice Wolters |
| 2021 | Nathaniel Brunt, Erika Chung, Donald Francis, Nataleah Hunter-Young, Fergus Maxwell, Azadeh Monzavi, Mykelle Pacquing, Vu Thuy Anh Phan, Kyle Rubini, Victoria Sands, Samantha Sherer, Sara Shields-Rivard, Alexa Vachon, Shanice Wolters |
| 2020 | Erika Chung, Myriam Couturier, Lauren Cullen, Lauren Dwyer, Calla Evans, Susan Flavelle, Safiyya Hosein, Christopher Hugelmann, Emilie-Andrée Jabouin, Walter, Lai, Romana Mirza, Sean Moreman, Tanya Pobuda, Danielle Rudnicka-Lavoie, Cyrus Sundar Singh, Shanice Wolters |
| 2019 | Gabriele Aroni, Erika Chung, Myriam Couturier, Lauren Cullen, Lauren Dwyer, Calla Evans, Susan Flavelle, Michel Ghanem, Shelley Haines, Safiyya Hosein, Emilie-Andrée Jabouin, Fergus Maxwell, Romana Mirza, Mina Momeni, Mark O'Connell, Samantha Sherer, Cyrus Sundar Singh, Peter Zakrzewski |
| 2018 | Andrew Bateman, Harnoor Bhangu, Alexander Carter, Erika Chung, Myriam Couturier, Lauren Cullen, Melody Devries, Emma Dunn, Lauren Dwyer, Craig Fahner, Susan Flavelle, Donna Gall, Samantha Hogg, Emilie-Andree Jabouin, Jaclyn Marcus, Mina Momeni, Ryan Phillips, Tanya Pobuda, Cyrus Sundar Singh, Peter Zakrzewski |
| 2017 | Andrew Bateman, Myriam Couturier, Melody Devries, Susan Flavelle, Donna Gall, Stephanie Hill, Safiyya Hossein, Chris Hugelmann, Nataleah Hunter Young, Emilie Jabouin, Riley Kucheran, Irina Lyubchenko, Mark O'Connell, Ryan Phillips, Peter Zakrzewski |
| 2016 | Nathaniel Brunt, Myriam Elyse Couturier, Lauren Cullen, Susan Flavelle, Donna Gall, Samantha Hogg, Safiyya Hosein, Nataleah Hunter-Young, Emilie-Andree Jabouin, Alanna McKnight, Mina Momeni, Andrew Monti, Mark O'Connell, Ryan Phillips, Daniel Sacco, Kirsten Schaefer, Emma Smith, Peter Zakrzewski |
| 2015 | Gabriele Aroni, Lauren Cullen, Donna Gall, Samantha Hogg, Safiyya Hosein, Daniel Joseph, Lauren Kirshner, Walter Lai, Alanna McKnight, Andrew Monti, Alevtina Naumova, Ryan Phillips, Amanda Piche, Daniel Sacco, Kirsten Schaefer, Emma Smith |
| 2014 | Joey Jakob, Chelsea Jones, Geoff Manchester, Erin McCurdy, Alanna McKnight, Andrew Monti, Ana Morais, Alevtina Naumova, Amanda Piche, Margaret Reid, Daniel Sacco, Kirsten Schaefer, Emilia Zboralska |
Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) CGS scholarships are named for Joseph-Armand Bombardier (1907-1964), a French-Canadian inventor and businessman, and founder of Bombardier. His most famous invention was the snowmobile.
Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s (SSHRC CGS-M)
The objective of the Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s (CGS M) Program is to help develop research skills and assist in the training of highly qualified personnel by supporting students who demonstrate a high standard of achievement in undergraduate and early graduate studies.
The value of this award is $17,500 for 12 months, non-renewable. An application is required.
Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral (SSHRC CGS-D)
The SSHRC CGS-D award supports research that leads to the completion of a dissertation, major scholarly publication, performance, recital and/or exhibit that, as a requirement for completion of the program, is merit reviewed at the institutional level.
The value of this award is $35,000 per year for 36 months, up to a total of $105,000. An applicaton is required.
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowships provide support for individuals undertaking doctoral studies at Canadian or foreign universities. The fellowships support students who demonstrate a high standard of scholarly achievement in undergraduate and graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities.
The value of this award is $20,000 per year for 12, 24, 36 or 48 months. An application is required.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (external link) is an independent and non-partisan charity established in 2001 as a living memorial to the former prime minister. The Foundation encourages research, reflection and action in four areas important to Canadians: human rights and dignity, responsible citizenship, Canada in the world, and people and their natural environment. The Foundation works through four programs: it grants doctoral scholarships, it awards fellowships to distinguished academics, it appoints mentors and it holds public conferences.
The value of this award is $40,000 per year for three years to cover tuition and reasonable living expenses and $20,000 per year for three years, as a research and travel allowance; and includes leadership training from Mentors and Fellows;
| Year | Recipient | Project |
| 2019 | Nataleah Hunter-Young | The Cultural Impact of Public Executions: e-Lynching and Artistic Interventions |
| 2019 | Riley Kucheran | Decolonizing Fashion and Mobilizing Indigenous Resurgence |
| 2018 | Nathaniel Brunt |
The Country Without a Post Office: a ‘metaphotographic’ history of Kashmir’s insurgency |
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)
Students in graduate studies at the master’s and doctoral levels can apply for a merit-based scholarship through the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Program. The Province of Ontario contributes two-thirds of the value of the award while Toronto Metropolitan University provides one-third.
The value of this award is $15,000 per year. Each OGS is tenable for a maximum of one year (three terms) and a minimum of two consecutive terms. An application is required.
Graduate Fellowships, Graduate Development Awards (RGF, RGDA)
All domestic applicants who apply before the Priority of Consideration deadline are automatically considered for Graduate Fellowships (RGF) and Graduate Development Awards (RGDA). Returning students students who perform at the level required will also be eligible for consideration for an RGF after their first year in a Toronto Metropolitan University graduate program. These awards will be dependent on availability of funding.
The value of the award varies (merit based - academic excellence) and is detailed in your Offer of Admission. Consideration is automatic - no application required.
