Judy Rebick, the CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University, has been chosen as this year’s winner of CAUT’s Sarah Shorten Award.

The award, given to Rebick at CAUT’s November council meeting, was established in 1990 to recognize outstanding achievements in the promotion of women’s rights at universities and colleges.

On campus, Rebick is credited with having promoted an engaged, activist form of scholarship that is committed to social justice and equality.

Her books, Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution (2005) and Imagine Democracy (2000) are included as course material in universities and colleges across the country. “She has made a major contribution to the development of feminist theories and has played a very important role documenting the history of women’s activism in Canada,” wrote one of her nominators.

Rebick is also past president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, where she lobbied governments to advance women’s equality through legis­la­tion and policy, built alli­ances between women’s movements in Quebec and Canada, and supported Aboriginal women’s organizations.

Having worked as a broadcaster and contributor to many publications and media outlets, Rebick is cre­­dited by her nominators as having had a “huge impact” on audiences, and having helped to popularize feminist issues. Today, in addition to her position at Ryerson, Rebick is publisher of the alternative news web site rabble. ca and is a regular contributor to Herizons Magazine.

In the words of another of her nominators, “as a scholar, broadcaster and activist, Professor Rebick is an extraordinary role model for many…and has contributed greatly to the academic environment and the social consciousness of the university.”