Marc Gervais Prize - Department of Communication Studies

About Concordia University
About the Department of
Communication Studies
Think Media, Practice Media
Founded in 1965 as Communication Arts, Concordia’s
Department of Communication Studies was the first
university department in Canada dedicated to the study
of communication and media.
The Department offers undergraduate and graduate
programs exploring a wide range of interests in media
analysis, critique and creation. Central to its programs
of study is the integration of knowledge based in the
humanities and liberal arts, the social sciences and
media practice.
Our faculty members are internationally recognized as
researchers and creators. Our students are among the
very best of the applicants to our programs and our
alumni are leaders in their fields.
When 44,000 students choose to entrust their future to you,
you have to live up to their expectations. That’s what our
faculty members and staff do every day. We make it a point
of pride to facilitate the accomplishments of our students, to
provide them with opportunities for discovery and success.
Concordia is proud of its innovative teaching, real-world
research and commitment to social responsibility. Our
vibrant, multicultural downtown and west-end campuses
both reflect and contribute to the uniqueness of Montreal.
Concordia offers more than 300 undergraduate and
200 graduate programs, diplomas and certificates through
four faculties, School of Graduate Studies and School of
Extended Learning. Concordia is welcoming, engaged
and committed to innovation and excellence in education,
research, creative activity and community partnerships. It
dares to be different and draws on its diversity to transform
the individual, strengthen society and enrich the world.
Marc Gervais Prize
in Communication Studies
Paying tribute to a great educator
The Department of Communication Studies will pay
tribute to a great teacher and a wonderful friend with the
creation of the Marc Gervais Prize in Communication
Studies—an annual $2000 award to be given to
graduating BA students to support existing or future
projects. Students will compete for the award based on
academic achievements and the quality and potential of
their projects.
A fundraising appeal has already begun to ensure the
sustainability of the prize and we call on all alumni and
friends to contribute. Our aim is to raise enough funds
to create an endowment that will secure this award in
perpetuity.
He’s been described as fun, charming, handsome
and suave. He’d put on accents and do Cary Grant
impressions in class. His tweed jackets and ascots were
legendary. And at the same time he was grounded in
his faith and dedicated his career to preserving Loyola
College’s humanist tradition.
He was known in film circles simply as “the Jesuit”.
He’s an expert on Ingmar Bergman and, in 1999,
published his seminal work Ingmar Bergman: Magician
and Prophet. Until recently he was a regular at the Cannes
Film Festival. He even looks like François Truffaut.
He was a professor in the Department of Communication
Studies for 30 years. He was a colleague, a mentor,
a friend and confidante.
Father Marc Gervais was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec,
in 1929. In 1950, he graduated from Loyola College
(now Concordia University) with a Bachelor of Arts. In
1960, he earned a Master of Fine Arts in Drama at the
Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.,
and in 1979 completed his PhD in film aesthetics at the
Sorbonne. Oh yes: Dr. Gervais was ordained a Jesuit
priest in 1963.
His film courses—there were many—were immensely
popular with students and non-students. Themes
included: Alfred Hitchcock, Hollywood in the Silent Era,
Germany in the 1920s, John Ford and the Western and
Ingmar Bergman and the Scandinavians, to name a few.
Film Ideas, a course in which students analysed a film
a week—usually at Cinema V and then in class—was
especially well-liked. Just like Father Marc Gervais
himself.
Message from Rae Staseson
Chair, Communication Studies
Marc Gervais left a remarkable legacy in the Department
of Communication Studies and his famous flair for
teaching influenced many people at Concordia and
beyond. His passion for film and humanism, along with
his charismatic lectures, provided a rich and dynamic
forum for teaching students how to appreciate and “read”
film. We hope to continue this tradition, recognizing the
importance of our past practices by creating this prize for
undergraduate students whose works embrace the spirit
of Marc Gervais’s enthusiasm and ideals for media arts.
What are your memories of your time spent in
Communication Studies and studying with Marc Gervais?
Share your stories with us by visiting our website at
coms.concordia.ca
Contact
Simon Bensimon
Principal Director of Development
Telephone: (514) 848-2424, ext. 4384
Email: simon.bensimon@concordia.ca
Maggie Borowiec
Development Officer
Telephone: (514) 848-2424, ext. 2093
Email: maggie.borowiec@concordia.ca