Ursula Kelly

Kelly was born in 1956^[1] and raised in Gambo, Newfoundland and Labrador to parents Margaret Waterman Kelly, a teacher, and Andrew J. Kelly. Kelly later created "The Margaret Waterman Kelly Teaching Prize" at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) in honour of her mother who had attended the institution as a student.^[2]

Kelly earned three degrees at MUN before enrolling in the University of Toronto for her PhD.^[3]

After earning her PhD, Kelly moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she accepted a faculty position at Saint Mary's University from 1988 until 1994 and Mount Saint Vincent University.^[4] In 2001, Kelly accepted a faculty position at MUN and taught Education 6106, a graduate course elective.^[5]

In 2009, she published Migration and education in a multicultural world: Culture, loss, and identity, a collection of essays regarding the impact mass migration has on identity displacement, disorientation, and loss.^[6] The following year, Kelly published a collection of essays titled Despite This Loss: Essays on Place, Culture and Memory with Elizabeth Yeoman.^[7]

Kelly later accepted a Fogo Island Research Fellowship program position to interact with members of Fogo Island and understand their culture and livelihood.^[8] In 2018, she co-authored a book with Meghan C. Forsyth titled The Music of Our Burnished Axes: Songs and Stories of the Woods Workers of Newfoundland and Labrador.^[9] The book is a collection of songs, tunes, recitations, poems, and narratives focused on the contributions wood workers had on Newfoundland and Labrador.^[10] In the same year, Kelly was promoted to University Research Professor at MUN, the highest academic title a professor could obtain at the institution.^[11]