We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026–2027 John Keenlyside Special Collections Research Fellowship.

This fellowship provides an opportunity for researchers to undertake projects that require substantial on-site engagement with the unique holdings of the Bruce Peel Special Collections. Designed to foster innovative scholarship and creative approaches to archival research, the award supports scholars who may not otherwise be able to travel to Edmonton to access these materials.

Following a competitive adjudication process, we are delighted to announce this year’s inaugural recipients:

Dr. Karis Shearer, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Shearer's project, “Daphne Marlatt: A Biography,” examines the life and cultural work of the acclaimed Canadian poet, novelist, and editor Daphne Marlatt. During her research residency, Shearer will be working with the Black Sparrow Archive held in Bruce Peel Special Collections, which holds the manuscript (original typescript), page proofs, galley proofs, and 1st edition copy of Daphne Marlatt's first book of poetry, entitled leaf leaf/s and a set of letters from Marlatt to her publisher, John Martin. By situating these items alongside material in the University of Alberta Archive, Shearer aims to recover the author-publisher relationships and archival history that brought Marlatt’s early experimental work into the world. A historical recovery project and the first formal biography of Daphne Marlatt, this project will contribute to the fields of sound studies, feminist theory, and archival studies.

Casarina Hocevar, PhD Candidate at Carleton University.

Casarina Hocevar's project, “The Shaping of Canadian Culinary Communities in Edmonton and Beyond, 1930-1980,” examines the intersections among gardening, foodways, and identity within settler communities in the mid-20th-century Edmonton area. During her research residency, she will draw extensively on three distinct collections held at Bruce Peel Special Collections: the Linda Miron Distad Culinaria Collection, the Chinese Experience in Canada Collection, and Prairie Ephemera, which hold items such as cookbooks, photographs, restaurant menus, and business cards to explore the roles of community grocers and official settlement perspectives. Hocevar plans to connect these archival materials with oral histories that highlight how settlers adapted their culinary cultures in Canada rather than being strictly shaped by state expectations.

At the conclusion of their residency, fellows will share their findings through a written report posted to our website and may participate in public programming, including lectures or workshops.

Between April 1st, 2026, and September 1st, 2026, Peel’s exhibitions, workshops, and research appointments are suspended to allow the team to focus on back-end operations. During this time, limited remote research services remain available. There is limited capacity to accommodate time-sensitive requests from researchers who need to view rare print materials and cannot wait until the fall term begins.

NOTE: During this summer period, non-circulating materials housed at RCRF or obtained via Interlibrary Loan may be used only in the reading room at U of A Archives.

Remote Research Services: The Peel team serves researchers' needs remotely by answering questions about rare materials, providing images of materials not otherwise available (whenever possible), and linking to digital resources that may help meet current research and teaching needs (see "Peel materials online"). If you have questions about materials housed in Bruce Peel Special Collections, you can email us at bpsc@ualberta.ca.

Visiting Researchers: If you plan to travel to the Edmonton area to conduct research at Bruce Peel Special Collections, we strongly recommend doing so during the regular academic year to avoid our limited summer service period. Whenever you plan to visit, it is very important to contact us at bpsc@ualberta.ca well in advance so that we have every opportunity to accommodate your needs.

Like all University of Alberta Library locations, Bruce Peel Special Collections is open to everyone, including faculty, staff, students, and members of the general public.

Bruce Peel Special Collections is pleased to announce the launch of the inaugural John Keenlyside Special Collections Research Fellowship. The $2,000 CAD award supports up to two scholars per year to travel to Edmonton, Alberta, for research that requires substantial on-site use of material held in Bruce Peel Special Collections, drawing upon the broader holdings of the University of Alberta Library as needed.

We invite all scholars, students, and community researchers living outside the greater Edmonton area to apply. We welcome applications from scholars using traditional archival and bibliographic methods, as well as those pursuing creative, interdisciplinary, or non-traditional research approaches.

Bruce Peel Special Collections offers a limited number of research appointments each week (September-March), but some researchers will want to consider using digital resources where possible, and professors who are planning classes are encouraged to make use of rare materials that can be examined either as print originals or using digital reproductions, so that all options are available to your students.  

In order to help you to identify digital reproductions of primary source materials, we continue to work to add relevant links to the Research Collections page on Peel's website. Such links will help you to find digital content that has been created by U of A Library, by our colleagues at other institutions, and through collaborative projects.  Also, please note that University of Alberta Library subscribes to numerous online databases, including many that offer digitized primary source materials.

Here are some highlights of Peel's digital resources:

Peel's Digital Exhibitions - Expertly curated and filled with images of rare materials, Peel's award-winning digital exhibition program covers topics from the history of photography (Photographies) to Canadian Women Artists' Books to the source of some of the earliest ideas about witches and witch trials (Tinctor's Foul Treatise). They explore the papers (including photographs) of pioneering Western Canadian journalist Miriam Green Ellis, the complexities of interpreting primary historical materials (Sam Steele's Forty Years in Canada: History or Fiction?), and some of the most frequently-requested rare books in Bruce Peel Special Collections (Honorary Degree Books). The newest additions explore 700 years of fish on the page (The Ones That Didn't Get Away: Reflections on Fish Books and Book Collecting) and offer open access to digitized versions of the rare books on display during a major exhibition: Forgers, Fakers, and Publisher-Pirates (The Digitized Books), digitized by U of A Library or by our colleagues at other institutions.

Digitized in Subscription Databases - Some of Peel's collections have been partially digitized through databases created by major publishers and available only through subscribing libraries (including U of A Library), such as the Gregory Javitch Collection of books about Indigenous peoples and the Dr Ronald B. Madge Entomology Collection.

Digitized through Internet Archive - A selection of Peel materials have been digitized through the Internet Archive (which is free and available to all), including Treaty parchments (for Treaties 4, 6, 7, & 8), the Tinctor manuscipt, a Medieval Book of Hours, a collection of English Playbills (1779-1949), the Indigenous Photograph Collection, the Prairie Postcard Collection, and the Ariel Bension Sephardic Manuscript Collection, in addition to selections from the Gregory Javitch Collection of books about Indigenous peoples and the Dr Ronald B. Madge Entomology Collection.

Good luck with your research!