Dr. Laura Estill, a StFX English professor and Canada Research Chair in Digital Humanities, has been appointed to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, an honour recognizing her outstanding work.
The seven-year appointment celebrates exceptional accomplishment and an emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership, with members receiving their PhDs within the last 15 years.
“I was so pleased, and really honoured to get in. It’s a huge accomplishment,” says Dr. Estill, a renowned literary scholar, book historian, and digital humanist, who recently had her Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Digital Humanities renewed in June 2024.
“It’s an incredibly prestigious group to join. It feels exciting to be part of that group,” she says. “I’m looking forward to what it means to be a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, to be a part of this vibrant, intellectual group.”
Dr. Estill is in select company. In all, 56 people from universities across Canada, across disciplines, have been named members of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists this year. An induction ceremony will take place in Vancouver in November under a theme of “A Celebration of Excellence and Engagement.”
She is looking forward to building connection with other scholars from across Canada and participating in programs that the Royal Society of Canada offers, including a speaker series.
GLOBAL IMPACT
“On behalf of the Department of English and the StFX community, I extend my strongest congratulations to Dr. Laura Estill on her prestigious election to the Royal Society of Canada. Laura’s scholarly work is always timely and impressive. Her latest project, for example, will look at how digital resources shape how we study and teach Shakespeare and early modern literature today. Laura’s scholarship is read and cited by people all over the world. The impact of her research is truly global,” says Dr. Joseph Khoury, who chairs StFX’s English Department.
“I am delighted that the Royal Society has recognized the importance, quality, and impact of Laura’s work. The honour is well-deserved, and we cannot wait to celebrate her great achievement.”
AWARD-WINNING RESEARCH AND TEACHING
Dr. Estill’s award-winning research and teaching explores the reception of early modern English drama from its early print, manuscript, and performed contexts to today’s online and classroom environments. Her research and teaching demonstrates how to use digital tools to ask questions about our past, our society, and our thinking and learning.
Her work appears in major journals including Digital Humanities Quarterly, Shakespeare Quarterly, Digital Studies/Champ Numérique, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, Early Theatre, and Huntington Library Quarterly. Her book chapters appear in volumes published by Palgrave, Arden, Routledge, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press, to name a few. In 2018, she won the Medieval & Renaissance Drama Society’s “Barbara Palmer Award for Best New Essay in Early Drama Archival Research” for her article about John Cotgrave’s English Treasury of Wit and Language (1655) that appeared Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America.
Her internationally recognized and influential scholarship is evident in how her research is sought out, cited, and taught. In the past five years, Dr. Estill has offered multiple invited talks at international institutions including Newcastle University (UK), University of Zurich (Switzerland), and the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Brazil). Her work is cited extensively, and in multiple languages. She has been cited in scholarship published in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Her research is taught around the world.
Of note, Dr. Estill’s leadership in digital humanities shines through her community building and organization of training events. She created and continues to co-organize the Digital Humanities Summer Institute-East (DHSI-East) to support vital digital humanities training in Atlantic Canada.
Recognizing the importance of regional digital humanities training efforts like DHSI-East, Dr. Estill is primary investigator on a $200,000 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant for Canadian Certificate in Digital Humanities/Certificat canadien en Humanités Numériques. This innovative national project brings together digital humanists from across the country. This work will bring even more international recognition to Canada’s existing position at the cutting edge of digital humanities training.
Dr. Estill is the sixth professor from St. Francis Xavier University to be inducted into the Royal Society of Canada.
