Testimonial from Melissa Munn, Our First PhD Graduate
"Completing my PhD at the University of Ottawa has been an amazing experience. In addition to strengthening my research and academic skills, I was encouraged to make links between my interest in prisoner resettlement and public and penal policy. I felt encouraged to push the boundaries of my knowledge and to make a real contribution to the field of criminology. Importantly, this was a program that supported and encouraged my activism and my vision for change rather than just valuing my work in the classroom.
The supervision I received from my supervisor and accompanying committee was outstanding and I was able to work in an interdisciplinary manner – in my case blending my love of criminology with the field of human geography. The direction and academic mentoring that I received from my supervisor, Professor Christine Bruckert, went well beyond my expectations and has helped me carve out my own niche within academe.
The financial support I received was excellent but more importantly, I felt encouraged by the department as a whole. One of the real advantages that I found at the University of Ottawa was the diversity of faculty — in terms of both their interests and their approaches to research — and I was able to tap into this throughout my program. One of the unique benefits of this program is the opportunity to learn from scholars in both official languages and, in the course, improve my own French skills.
I am proud of the work that I was able to do during my doctoral program and would recommend this program to anyone who wanted to be engaged, challenged and mentored. I hope that in the future, I will have students who recall their experiences with the same fondness that I have for my time at uOttawa.”
In terms of my research, I examined the release, re-entry and resettlement experiences of men who had served over 10 years in prison and who had been out for more than five. This research runs counter to the dominant focus on recidivism by focussing instead on success. The mass media and the social body focuses on failure and in so doing, neglects the majority of parolees — men who are released from prison, return to the community and do not return to prison for new offences. Certainly the path to get to where these men are is not easy but, it was evident in the research that in addition to their own resilience, these men were able to count on members of the community and members of the criminal justice system to 'make good'. These men do, despite their lengthy imprisonment, go on to lead productive lives and many dedicate themselves to community betterment activities by volunteering their time to various organizations. I loved doing this research, it was part of a larger SSHRC funded project that was headed by Chris Bruckert and Sylvie Frigon.