Stephen Gill, a Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science, Communications and Culture at York University, is among the recipients of the 2021 Killam Prizes.
Stephen Gill
Announced Feb. 3 by the Canada Council for the Arts, this distinguished program recognizes the work of active researchers who have devoted their careers to pushing the boundaries of knowledge and finding solutions to the issues we face every day.
"The challenges of the last year have reminded us how crucial advanced research is to our lives. Today, we salute the innovative work of researchers whose outstanding contributions are changing our present and our future," said Simon Brault, director and CEO, Canada Council for the Arts.
The Killam Prizes honour eminent Canadian researchers in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering. The work of these researchers has an outstanding impact on the lives of Canadians and people around the world. They each receive a $100,000 prize.
Gill earned the prize in the Social Science category. In addition to his role at York, he is senior associate member at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. His teaching is in the fields of international relations, global political economy, and social and political theory.
His scholarship points out the growing conflict between the unrestrained pursuit of profit and life-sustaining processes, emphasizing the dire need for radical changes in public policy to mitigate the root causes of many major health problems around the world.
Gill is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and earned the Hallsworth Visiting Research Chair in Global Studies at the University of Manchester, U.K. in 2016. In 2009, he was named as one of the top 50 all-time thinkers in international relations in Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations (New York Routledge 2009).
Gill was elected vice-president of the 7,500-member International Studies Association (ISA) in 2003, and subsequently elected as the ISA’s youngest-ever Distinguished Senior Scholar in International Political Economy in 2006 for his career contributions and research leadership.
Gill has been the recipient of many fellowships (including two Fulbright awards) and several visiting Chairs. In 2009-10 he was the inaugural Jane and Aatos Erkko Visiting Research Professor for the Study of Contemporary Society and Social Justice at the Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki where he hosted the inaugural Helsinki Symposium and also made a series of podcasts and videocasts on contemporary intellectual and political matters.
Gill is also an award-winning teacher, mentor and supervisor of several generations of York graduate and undergraduate students. Three of his doctoral students have won the prestigious York Faculty of Graduate Studies award for the best dissertation defended in their graduating year; three of his PhD students (all of whom came to York expressly to work with him) are earned prestigious SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier doctoral fellowships.
The 2021 Killam winners also include:
- Michel Bouvier – Health Sciences
Bouvier is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine and the CEO of the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) at the Université de Montréal. - Gilbert Laporte – Engineering
Laporte is an honorary professor at HEC Montréal, professor at the University of Bath (U.K.), adjunct professor at Molde University College (Norway), and a world authority in the development of mathematical tools. - Arthur Ripstein – Humanities
Ripstein is a professor of law and philosophy and University Professor at the University of Toronto, and a leading philosopher whose work has been at the forefront of renewed scholarly interest in the legal and political philosophy of philosopher Immanuel Kant. - Douglas Stephan – Natural Sciences
Stephan is a University Professor in Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Inorganic Materials and Catalysis at the University of Toronto, and a world leader in organometallic and inorganic chemistry.
Award winners are selected by a peer assessment committee. For more on the 2021 Killam Award recipients, visit canadacouncil.ca/press/2021/02/the-canada-council-for-the-arts-announces-the-2021-killam-prize-winners.