I am pleased to announce that Melissa Castron has been awarded the Dodds Prize for 2021 for her article entitled “Colonialism, Computerized: The Canada Land Inventory and the Canada Geographic Information System at Library and Archives Canada.” Melissa Castron is a graduate from the University of Manitoba, and her article was submitted by Professor Greg Bak.

Instituted in 2011, the Dodds Prize recognizes superior research and writing on an archival topic by a student enrolled in a Master's level archival studies program at a Canadian university. The award honours Gordon Dodds (1941–2010), first President of the ACA, and Archivaria's longest-serving general editor. Submissions received for the 2020–21 academic year were reviewed by an adjudication committee comprising Anna Gibson-Hollow, Amy Furness, and Braden Cannon. I thank the committee for their service. Melissa Castron's article will be published in the Spring 2022 issue of Archivaria and the award will be formally presented at the 2021 ACA Award Ceremony. The citation reads:

In her well written and thoroughly researched article, Melissa Castron offers a skillful synthesis of the existing literature in cartographic studies, archival studies – particularly the areas of archival description and preservation – and Indigenous studies, and persuasively demonstrates the inadequacy of prevailing archival concepts and practices related to cartographic records and non-textual materials more generally. Melissa invites us to recognize that as cultural artefacts, maps act as complex recordkeeping technologies, and require that we adopt a transdisciplinary and processual approach in order to reveal their inherent subjectivity and power. By addressing the role played by both cartographic materials and archives in the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples’ lands, Melissa’s article is a thoughtful contribution to the process of reconciliation and decolonization in the Canadian context.

Congratulations, Melissa, on your excellent work.

 Shyla Seller, Managing Editor, Archivaria