York University is honouring Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies political science Professor Isabella Bakker and Schulich School of Business Professor Russell Belk with the title of Distinguished Research Professor. The title is given to active members of the academy in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the University through research.
The title will be conferred on Bakker at the Spring Convocation on June 18 at 3:30pm and Belk during the June 20 ceremony at 10:30am.
Isabella Bakker teaches International Political Economy, Women and Politics and Public Finance. A leading global expert in her field, Bakker’s research examines the interplay between feminist perspectives and international public policy, with a focus on how macroeconomics and fiscal policy affect questions of gender and social justice. Bakker’s published work includes: Questioning Financial Governance from a Feminist Perspective, Power, Production and Social Reproduction: Human In/security in the Global Political Economy, Beyond States and Markets: The Challenges of Social Reproduction and The Strategic Silence: Gender and Economic Policy. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at York since 1986, and has held visiting professorships at the European University Institute in Florence, the University of California Santa Barbara and the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, among other institutions. Bakker was named a Trudeau Fellow in 2009 and a Fulbright New Century Scholar in 2004. She is the principal investigator of a SSHRC-funded project “Budgeting for Women’s Human Rights in Canada”.
Russell Belk is the Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing at the Schulich School of Business. He is past president of the Association for Consumer Research and the International Association of Marketing and Development, and is a fellow in the Association for Consumer Research and the American Psychological Association. He has received the Paul D. Converse Award, two Fulbright Fellowships, and honorary professorships on four continents. In 2005 he received the Sheth Foundation/Journal of Consumer Research Award for Long Term Contribution to Consumer Research. His research involves the meanings of possessions, collecting, gift-giving and materialism and his work is often cultural, visual, qualitative, and interpretive. He is the co-founder of the Association for Consumer Research Film Festival and has more than 400 publications to his name. He is currently on the editorial board of 20 journals and is Associate Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research.
A Distinguished Research Professorship is awarded for life and evolves into a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus on retirement. All of York University’s distinguished research professors are encouraged to continue their involvement in the intellectual life of the University following retirement.
The major criterion for the honour is sustained and outstanding scholarly, professional or artistic achievement where a significant portion of the candidate’s work has been accomplished at York University. The award is inclusive of all full-time faculty in all disciplinary areas.