{"id":99130,"date":"2025-02-05T14:44:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=99130"},"modified":"2025-02-05T19:52:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T00:52:06","slug":"professor-emeritus-remembered-for-infectious-enthusiasm-for-psychology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/02\/professor-emeritus-remembered-for-infectious-enthusiasm-for-psychology\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Emeritus remembered for \u2018infectious enthusiasm\u2019 for psychology"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brock community mourns the passing of Professor Emeritus Stanley Sadava<\/a>, whose career at the University spanned 40 years. He passed away on Thursday, Jan. 30.<\/p>\n

Drew Dane, Co-Chair of the Department of Psychology, remembers Sadava as \u201can accomplished researcher who studied the social psychology of health, well-being and relationships\u201d and says he will be greatly missed.<\/p>\n

\u201cStan is remembered by the Psychology Department for being a leader whose kindness, wisdom and civility always helped us find solutions to challenges,\u201d says Dane. \u201cHis infectious enthusiasm for psychology inspired both faculty and students. He was very dedicated to both teaching and research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadava joined Brock\u2019s Department of Psychology in July 1971. His research on subjective health and the use of alchohol and drugs, funded by Canada Council, Health Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, was frequently shared both in his field and in the community.<\/p>\n

\"Stan

Professor Emeritus Stan Sadava in his 2001 faculty portrait.<\/p><\/div>\n

As early as 1978, Sadava identified a need for a more Canadian-based perspective for teaching social psychology, and by 1988, he had co-authored A textbook of social psychology<\/em>, the first Canadian-written textbook on social psychology. It went on to have six editions, with the last published in 2005. Sadava also co-authored Applied social psychology<\/em> with Don McCreary in 1997 and published numerous papers in academic journals.<\/p>\n

Sadava served multiple terms on Brock\u2019s Senate between 1984 and his retirement in 2011, and chaired Senate from 2005 to 2007. He also served a term on the Board of Trustees, sat on several University committees and was an original member of the Centre that has since become the Department of Applied Disability Studies.<\/p>\n

Dawn Zinga, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, says Sadava\u2019s countless contributions to his department, Faculty and Brock as a whole will not be forgotten.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor Sadava\u2019s influence, leadership and service have had a long reach,\u201d she says. \u201cTwo current Brock faculty members, Michael Busseri and Danielle Sirianni Molnar, completed their PhDs under his supervision, and they represent the countless students whose studies and careers he helped shape and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sirianni Molnar (BA \u201901, MA \u201905, PhD \u201911), Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies, completed her master\u2019s and doctoral degrees under Sadava\u2019s supervision after she took a course on “Drugs and Behaviour” with him, which she says \u201cchanged the trajectory\u201d of her life.<\/p>\n

He quickly offered her a research assistantship and she discovered a passion for research, in which she had previously had little interest. Today, Sirianni Molnar is a Canada Research Chair in Adjustment and Well-being in Children and Youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cStan was instrumental in helping me discover my love for research, showing me the power of inquiry and how it allows us to explore, question and ultimately contribute to something larger than ourselves,\u201d she says. \u201cHis wisdom remains a lasting influence, as I strive to mentor my own students in much the same way \u2014 minimizing hierarchies, keeping a positive outlook and sense of humour and fostering a spirit of collaboration. I hope I can contribute to keeping Stan\u2019s legacy of encouraging curiosity, nurturing growth and building meaningful connections alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June 2011, Sadava delivered a Convocation address in which he shared research on how university affects students before reflecting on his own journey of learning, contributing to knowledge, mentoring students and collaborating with colleagues both intellectually and administratively to build and shape Brock.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lengthy career for me \u2014 lengthy, but has passed by so rapidly because, to put it short, I\u2019ve loved it,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Brock community mourns the passing of Professor Emeritus Stanley Sadava, whose career at the University spanned 40 years. He passed away on Thursday, Jan. 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":99132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,1,38],"tags":[45,3585,8398,8126,522,29,14205],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99134,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99130\/revisions\/99134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}