It is with tremendous pleasure to share the news that Distinguished Research Professor Stephen Gill has been awarded the prestigious and world-renowned Killam Prize given in recognition of his scholarly excellence and impactful research in global affairs and international relations.
Congratulations, Professor Gill, on this well-deserved honour!
Your recent work on global and planetary health and the contradictions between contemporary capitalism and life-giving forces in our social world, in nature and the biosphere, is yet another thread in an exemplary career that has sought to harness scholarly work for the benefit of us all. Indeed, your tireless commitments to mobilize your intellectual talents for human betterment are inspiring.
The Department of Politics celebrates with you!
To see you reach such heights is especially meaningful for those of us who share your experience as a first-generation working-class scholar.
Once more, many, many congratulations, Professor Gill!
Sincerely,
Karen Murray, Chair, Department of Politics
- For more information, please see the yFile announcement.
- Please also see the Killam Prize official announcement.
An intellectual is someone who applies the capacity of human thought to understand, interpret, explain and under some conditions transform the objects and nature of [their] everyday world, and to shape its future. A critical intellectual is one [who] embraces the problem of the human condition … and seeks not only to understand but also to change it in a way that makes decent human life more feasible. [My] motivation [as] a critical intellectual [has] also always stemmed from my opposition to and scepticism about illegitimate power, and the structures of injustice that stem from hierarchical class formations. – Stephen Gill
*Stephen Gill quote from an interview conducted by Ingar Solty on February 25 and 26, 2009. A version of the interview was published in German (trans. Ingar Solty) as “Kritische Intellektuelle im 21.Jahrhundert,” Das Argument – Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Sozialwissenschaften, 280: 135-143.