Three Concordia profs named to Royal Society of Canada

Three Concordia professors have been recognized by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), highlighting their research and creative work in history, visual art and language development. Founded in 1882, the RSC brings together accomplished researchers, artists and intellectual leaders from across Canada.

Shannon McSheffrey and Marisa Portolese have been elected Fellows of the RSC, while Krista Byers-Heinlein has been elected to the RSC College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

The RSC recognizes scholars, artists and scientists whose work has made significant contributions to their fields. The 2026 honours add three Concordia researchers to the national organization’s community of distinguished scholars and artists.

Meet the 2026 RSC honourees

Shannon McSheffrey

Professor, Department of History
Faculty of Arts and Science

McSheffrey’s research focuses on the social, legal and cultural history of England between the Black Death and the mid-16th century.

Over the past 30 years, she has examined subjects including immigration, popular revolt and riot, law, gender roles, civic culture, marriage, literacy, heresy and popular religion. She has published six books and numerous scholarly articles on these topics.

McSheffrey is currently working on a book exploring the circumstances surrounding Evil May Day, an anti-immigrant riot in London in 1517.

Marisa Portolese

Professor, Department of Studio Arts
Faculty of Fine Arts

Portolese is a Canadian-Italian visual artist whose work explores portraiture, representations of women, storytelling, autobiography, family life and cultural heritage.

Her artistic practice often combines large-scale colour photography with painterly references. Her work examines identity and spectatorship, as well as the relationship between people and their psychological and physical environments.

Through staged and constructed images, moving and still images, and approaches rooted in storytelling, Portolese explores gesture, emotion and the nuances of the gaze.

Krista Byers-Heinlein

Professor, Department of Psychology
Faculty of Arts and Science

Byers-Heinlein investigates infant development, with a particular focus on language acquisition and bilingualism.

Her research examines how infants growing up in bilingual environments acquire two languages simultaneously. She uses behavioural methods including eye tracking, looking-time, sucking and reaching measures to study speech perception and word learning in monolingual and bilingual infants.

Her work also looks at parenting and how language strategies used by bilingual families influence children’s language learning. She is currently exploring how these findings can help identify bilingual children who may be at risk for language impairment and delay.

Learn more about research at Concordia.