1st prize: Lyne Kurtzman, Université du Québec à Montréal

Lyne Kurtzman is head of the Protocole UQAM/Relais-femmes. She holds a master’s degree in psychosociology of communication, which she obtained with honours. Knowledge development and mobilization have been a common thread throughout her career. Her extensive professional experience has earned her international recognition and includes a variety of achievements as the initiator and coordinator of research teams and networks, and as a researcher on issues such as sex trafficking and sexual violence. 
 
Since the 1990s, she has helped more than one hundred multidisciplinary partnerships to significantly develop and enhance their scientific programming and social impacts. During her time at UQAM’s Institut de recherches et d’études feministes, she coordinated two research infrastructures and a pan-Canadian consortium that paved the way for the creation of the Réseau québécois en études féministes (RéQEF) funded by the FRQSC.
 
Deeply concerned by the need to bridge the gap between theory and practice, between scientific and experiential knowledge and sociopolitical strategies, particularly in light of the many inequalities experienced by women, she has devoted herself through her writings and her many extramural activities to the consolidation and promotion of an innovative model of partnership-based collaboration within UQAM’s Service aux collectivités. Her dedication and valuable support for the next generation of students and academics attest to her acute concern for the transmission of feminist knowledge and practices.