Evan McCuish receives Dean's Convocation Medal

As one of SFU's most outstanding graduate students from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Evan McCuish is being recognized with the award of the Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal. On behalf of SFU, we congratulate McCuish on his outstanding achievements.

During the four years of his PhD, Evan McCuish has published 15 journal articles and six book chapters prior to completion of his dissertation. He also co-authored 29 different paper presentations, including nine as the lead author, and collaborated internationally with researchers from across the globe.

"The range of impact resulting from his dissertation and other publications is truly astonishing for any young scholar," says Professor Raymond Corrado, McCuish’s supervisor.

McCuish's dissertation, Bringing Psychopathy into Research on Offending Trajectories: Understanding the Constructs Role as a Barrier to Desistance, found that individuals scoring high on the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version were likely to offend between the ages of 12 and 28. His inclusion of factors such as death and incarceration brings into question the efficacy of many decade-old theories used to explain why individuals stop offending. His dissertation was awarded the 2017 American Psychology-Law Society Dissertation Award.

During his doctoral studies, McCuish was also Project Director of the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study. His role involved training and mentoring dozens of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as writing a grant that secured $140,731 from the SSHRC. He was also awarded a SSHRC Canadian Graduate Scholarship of $105,000.

McCuish also served as a Criminology Graduate Student Faculty Representative and was the Graduate Representative on the Executive Committee of the American Society of Criminology Developmental and Life Course Division, the second largest division of this Society.

Throughout his studies, he maintained a 4.28 CGPA and held seven different sessional instructor positions, where he averaged an 'A' rating for all four different categories of evaluations across all courses taught.

McCuish is now an assistant professor in the School of Criminology. He is also the co-principal investigator of the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study.

He says, "I'd like to thank all my mentors over the years, especially Raymond Corrado, Patrick Lussier, Steve Hart, Martin Bouchard, Martin Andresen, and Jesse Cale."

• Dissertation: Bringing Psychopathy into Research on Offending Trajectories: Understanding the Constructs Role as a Barrier to Desistance
• Supervisor: Dr. Raymond Corrado

Convocation Medal Award Winners 2017