Five University of Toronto professors — including one from the Faculty of Arts & Science — were recognized last week as University Professors, an elite designation bestowed on a small number of U of T faculty members for their distinguished scholarly achievement and pre-eminence in their fields.
Elizabeth Edwards, Prabhat Jha, Anita McGahan, James Retallack and Frances Shepherd were honoured at a reception attended by President Meric Gertler, Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regher and Chancellor Rose Patten.
The new University Professors are global leaders who’ve had a profound impact on their fields and on society more broadly, President Gertler said.
The five professors have, among them, earned two Rhodes Scholarships, three Royal Society of Canada fellowships, two Order of Canada appointments, two Canada Research Chairs, a Killam Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship and an Academy of Management fellowship.
“They have advanced influential new ideas, new methodologies and new technologies,” President Gertler said. “They’ve challenged established paradigms and defined entirely new areas of study – and they’ve changed the way that we understand key challenges, both historical and contemporary.
“Between them, they’ve offered fresh insights into age-old questions concerning society and government; they’ve brought fundamental discoveries to market; and they’ve pioneered innovative approaches to pressing challenges in global health, cancer care and the environment.”
A&S's James Retallack named University Professor
Historian James Retallack, who has been described as “one of the most profound scholars of Imperial Germany writing in either English or German” has been named a University Professor.
The author of many award-winning books and publications based on decades of archival research, Professor Retallack was one of the first non-German scholars to discover the riches of the Saxon State Archive in Dresden, formerly behind the Iron Curtain.
“Professor Retallack’s research is central to any understanding of German history and speaks to present-day developments on how and when and to what degree political systems are able to democratize under the influence of authoritarian movements, institutions and leaders,” said Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regher.
Retallack has been awarded a Killam Research Fellowship; a John Simon Guggenheim Research Fellowship; and a SSHRC Insight Grant, which supports his current research on German Social Democratic leader August Bebel.
“I’ve always been aware of the mentors that I’ve had, the colleagues that I’ve had and the students who continue to inspire me — undergraduates almost as much as graduates — in my own writing and research,” said Retallack. “I’m very grateful for that.
“I’m very grateful to be a part of U of T now for 33 years.”