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Nominations for Honorific Professorships now open

The York Senate Committee on Awards is now accepting nominations for University Professorships and Distinguished Research Professorships.

University Professorships are conferred upon long-serving tenured faculty members who have made extraordinary contributions to the University as colleagues, teachers and scholars. Such achievement fulfills the following requirements:

  • significant long-term contribution to the development or growth of the University or of its parts;
  • significant participation in the collegium through mentorship, service and/or governance;
  • sustained impact over time on the University’s teaching mission; and
  • recognition as a scholar.

The Distinguished Research Professorship is awarded to a member of the faculty who has made outstanding contributions to the University through research. The Distinguished Research Professor will have demonstrated scholarly achievement by sustained publication or other recognized and accepted demonstrations of sustained authoritative contributions to scholarship. Such achievement fulfills the following requirements:

  • includes sustained and continuing contributions to the field or fields of scholarship involved;
  • the work is of excellent quality;
  • the work has made a major impact on the discipline or field of study involved;
  • the work is recognized within and appreciated beyond the University; and
  • the nominee will have an international reputation in the field of study involved.

Nominations may be made by all tenured faculty members, who shall provide a complete nomination file, including the nominee’s CV, a detailed letter of nomination explaining how the candidate’s achievements conform to the general criteria, along with three letters of support from those in a position to comment on the nominee’s achievements and contributions. For the Distinguished Research Professorship, two of these letters will be from individuals external to the University who must be at arm’s length from the nominee; the individuals providing external letters of support are asked to include in their letters a statement as to their relationship, if any, with the nominee.

While the principal criteria are set out in the Senate Policy on Honorific Professorships, York strongly values diversity and equity within its research community and encourages nominations of those who are under-represented in recent competitions.

The Senate Policy on Honorific Professorships and the nomination form are available on the Senate website. The deadline for submission is Friday, March 1. Nominations may be submitted electronically to kwhite1@yorku.ca or to the University Secretariat at 1050 Kaneff Tower, Keele Campus.