Lisa Kelly LL.M. ’08 was recently awarded a Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship. Annually, 15 doctoral candidates are awarded up to $180,000 each over a three-year period to support research “of compelling present-day concern” to the Trudeau Foundation, which was established in 2001 to honor the former prime minister of Canada.
Kelly is an S.J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School where she works under the supervision of Professor Janet Halley to examine the legal regulation of children and adolescents at home, in the school, and in detention. Her aspiration is to ensure that Canadian law takes into account children’s and adolescents’ rights and interests. Kelly’s primary interests include family law, children and the law, and international law. She is also a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow and Doctoral Fellow of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Prior to returning to Harvard to enter the S.J.D. program, Kelly clerked for Justice Marshall Rothstein of the Supreme Court of Canada. She earned her LL.M. at Harvard Law School in 2008 as a U.S.-Canada Fulbright scholar and focused on how state sovereignty and national identity projects influence inter-country adoption law and policy between sending and receiving states.
Kelly earned her J.D. from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law where she was a Fellow of the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Programme. She also holds an Associate of Arts from the University College of the Fraser Valley, and a B.A. from the University of British Columbia.
The Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship is tenable for three years. During their third year, Trudeau Scholars may apply for a thesis writing scholarship or a postdoctoral scholarship, for a fourth year of financing. The scholarship of up to $180,000 consists of two distinct financial categories: an annual stipend of $40,000, which is intended to cover the cost of tuition and reasonable living expenses and an annual travel allowance of $20,000, which is available to support research-related travel and to cover networking expenses associated with the Foundation’s Public Interaction program.