Excellence in scholarship

Two Dalhousie professors have been granted 2006-07 Fulbright awards. Esmeralda Thornhill and Frank Harvey are the latest Dalhousie faculty to receive the prestigious awards that will see them join the ranks of the worldwide community of Fulbright scholars. Recognized as one of the worldÕs foremost educational exchange programs, the Fulbright Program is active in over 150 countries worldwide. Dalhousie has also attracted a senior American scholar to the recently-established Fulbright Visiting Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies.

ÒProfessors Harvey and Thornhill are leaders in their respective fields, and a testament to the scholarship that defines Dalhousie,” says Michael Hawes, Executive Director of the Foundation for Educational Exchange. 

Thornhill, a professor of Law, inaugurated the distinguished James Robinson Johnston Endowed Chair in Black Canadian Studies. A trained pedagogue and renowned Human Rights educator with over three decades of experience, as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Temple University in Philadelphia, Thornhill will lecture as well as compile and develop legal pedagogical materials grounded in critical race and Afrocentric theories. The resulting anti-racism teaching tools, will better equip educators in both the U.S. and Canada to ensure that equality in the classroom becomes a true reality.

ÒI am particularly pleased by the important recognition that the distinguished Fulbright award brings to my scholarly work. I believe that curriculum is the key to lasting and effective institutional change. Therefore, my research will improve and expand the current knowledge base around ÔraceÕ and law, increase and strengthen the body of existing didactic material by creating new teaching tools; and it will lay the foundation for establishing new bilateral and multilateral partnerships, rooted in the racial history shared by both the U.S. and Canada,” said Thornhill.

Harvey, a professor of political science, was awarded the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies at Plattsburgh State University in the SUNY system and, in so doing, becomes the first Dalhousie scholar to receive such an honour.  While at Plattsburgh, Harvey will conduct research on homeland security, and its impact on Canada-US security and defence relations.

ÒI am so deeply honoured to have received a Fulbright award and to be asked to take up the Fulbright-SUNY (Plattsburgh) Chair in Canadian Studies. I am looking forward to working with faculty at the Center for the Study of Canada and other researchers throughout the SUNY system,” he says.

The Fulbright Visiting Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies at Dalhousie University has been awarded to Tom Wilson, a professor of Anthropology from Binghamton University. While at Dalhousie, Wilson will explore borders, identities and citizenship in Atlantic Canada.

Eleven Dalhousie students and scholars have participated in the Canada-US Fulbright Program since its inception in 1991. In addition, Dalhousie has attracted eight American Fulbrighters to its campus.

Supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the United States Department of State, and a core group of private sector partners, the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program attempts to build mutual understanding and promote a deeper and more nuanced knowledge of Canada-US relations by supporting research on contemporary public policy issues relevant to Canada, the United Sates, and the relationship between the two countries.

For more information, please visit www.fulbright.ca.