Shauna Labman

Shauna completed her Ph.D. in Law at the University of British Columbia in 2013. Her doctoral dissertation At Law’s Border: Unsettling Refugee Resettlement examined the intersection of international rights, responsibility and obligation in the absence of a legal scheme for refugee resettlement. The Trudeau Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Liu Institute for Global Issues supported her research. In collaboration with other Trudeau and Liu scholars and with funding from both organizations, Shauna organized a three part conference series Citizenship from Coast to Coast to Coast that engaged in locally based conversations on the meaning of Canadian citizenship in Vancouver, Halifax and Iqaluit in 2010-2011. Prior to her graduate studies, Shauna worked as a consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in New Delhi and with the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, as well as with the Law Commission of Canada, the Workers’ Compensation Board of British Columbia, the Nunavut Court of Justice and as a law clerk at the Federal Court of Appeal. In addition to her doctoral degree, Shauna holds a Bachelor of Arts (English & Religion) from the University of British Columbia, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Victoria, and a Master of Laws from the University of British Columbia. She has been a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 2004. Experience as a Trudeau scholar What I have always appreciated about the design of the Trudeau Scholarship is the recognition that scholars are more than their research. In the midst of intense research on discreet issues, the scholarship enables broader thinking, conversations and even projects. I therefore came to the close of my doctoral programme with a dissertation that I am very proud of, but also a clearer sense of, and engagement in, policy debates on a range of issues outside of my expertise, networks of committed and vibrant people, and experience articulating ideas and pushing causes I am passionate about. While the financial support of the Foundation was greatly appreciated it is these other aspects of the scholarship that will carry with me throughout my career and distinguish the Trudeau Foundation Scholarship from other doctoral funding.