On May 31, York's Hédi Bouraoui (left), university professor emeritus, Department of French Studies, Faculty of Arts, received an honorary doctorate from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, for his work as "écrivain et critique littéraire de réputation nationale et internationale" (national and international writer and literary scholar).
Bouraoui, a pioneer in the teaching of Franco-Ontarian literature in the French Studies Masters Program at York, is a dynamic supporter of Francophone Caribbean, Maghrebian and African literatures.
In 1997 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and, in his citation, the society described him as "simultaneously a theoretician of repute in literature and a writer of great talent."
In 1996, he was honoured by the Government of France with the title of Chevalier de Palmes Académiques.