91ºÚÁÏÍø

Eight 91ºÚÁÏÍø Arts Professors are among thirty-one 91ºÚÁÏÍø professors honoured by the Provost for exceptional research achievements as part of the 2026 cohort of Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professors, James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professors and William Dawson Scholars.

The 2026 honourees from the Faculty of Arts are:

• Allan Hepburn, Department of English, Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor (new)
• Jennifer Welsh, Max Bell School of Public Policy and Department of Political Science, Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor (new)
• David Wright, Department of History and Classical Studies and Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy, Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor (new)
• Daniel Béland, 91ºÚÁÏÍø Institute for the Study of Canada and Department of Political Science, James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor (renewed)
• Jessica Coon, Department of Linguistics, James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor (new)
• Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, Department of Sociology and Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy, James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor (new)
• Dietlind Stolle, Department of Political Science, James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor (renewed)
• Megan Bradley, Department of Political Science and the Institute for the Study of International Development, William Dawson Scholar (renewed)

Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professors  

Three professors from the Faculty of Arts have been appointed Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professors, 91ºÚÁÏÍø’s highest honour for late-career researchers who are recognized as international leaders in their field of study.

Professor Allan Hepburn from the Department of English, Professor Jennifer Welsh, Director of the Max Bell School of Public Policy, and Professor David Wright from the Department of History and Classical Studies have all been named Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professors.  

Allan Hepburn, Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is an internationally renowned literary scholar of British, Irish and American novels with a particular focus on mid-century literature and culture. His publications focus on convergences among espionage, human rights, citizenship, nuclear extinction, the Second World War, diplomacy, and fiction. Hepburn is also a recognized authority on the Anglo-Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen and recently published the edited volume  with Cambridge University Press.  

Jennifer Welsh, Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor, who came to 91ºÚÁÏÍø as Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, and is now Director of the Max Bell School of Public Policy, is a scholar and expert on humanitarian intervention, the evolution of the notion of the ‘responsibility to protect’ in international society, the UN Security Council and Canadian foreign policy. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an International Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, from 2013-2016, she served as the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, on the Responsibility to Protect. Professor Welsh is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the prevention of atrocity.

David Wright, who will take up his Distinguished James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professorship in October 2026 when his term as Canada Research Chair in the History of Health Policy ends, is a specialist in the social history of modern medicine and has published extensively on the history of psychiatry, children’s health and disability, the development of hospitals, physician migration, and the evolution of Canadian Medicare. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Professor Wright’s monograph, Histories of Madness won the 2017 Floyd Chalmers Award, and his most recent co-authored book, Foreign Practices: Immigrant Doctors and the History of Canadian Medicare, received Honorable Mention for the 2021 Wilson Prize.

James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professors  

Ìý²¹²Ô»åÌýDietlind Stolle have had their James 91ºÚÁÏÍø professorships renewed this year, and Jessica CoonÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýAmélie Quesnel-Vallée have been newly appointed James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professors. The James 91ºÚÁÏÍø Professor award recognizes a senior scholar’s status as an outstanding and original researcher of world-class caliber and an international leader in their field.

is Professor of Political Science and also serves as the Director of the 91ºÚÁÏÍø Institute for the Study of Canada. He has published more than 25 books and edited volumes and over 220 articles in peer-reviewed journals on politics and public policy. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he is a leading expert on fiscal and social policies, appears regularly in Canadian and International media to comment on key policy and political issues, and provides policy advice testimony to Provincial and Federal governments. In 2025, he received the prestigious Humboldt Research Award, which allowed him to spend time at the Heidelberg University collaborating with colleagues there on a research project on federalism, public policy, and state building.

is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics and co-lead of the . Her research focuses on the syntax and morphology of Indigenous languages of the Americas such as , Mi’gmaq, and the Mayan languages Ch’ol and Chuj. Beyond human languages, her work as a consultant on the award winning film Arrival contemplated what Alien languages might look like and, drawing from her own experiences in the field in Mexico, on the way in which linguists conduct fieldwork.

Professor Quesnel-Vallée is jointly appointed to the Department of Sociology (Faculty of Arts) and the Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences) where she is Inaugural Chair. Her leading research explores how public policies influence human health over the long term and across different social groups. Professor Quesnel-Vallée works with large, administrative and survey data to deliver key policy relevant insights, which she now extends in her capacity as Executive Director of the project to deliver training in support of evidence-based decision making. She also holds the Canada Research Chair in Policies and Health Inequalities at 91ºÚÁÏÍø, is the founding Director of the and a founding member of the 91ºÚÁÏÍø Center on Population Dynamics.

Professor Stolle conducts research on voluntary associations, trust, social capital, ethnic diversity, immigrant integration, political participation, neuro-politics, democratic backsliding and gender politics. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, from 2013 to 2020 she was Director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship which brings together researchers from across Quebec whose research approach democracy from the angle of citizenship, the political role that individuals play within their society and the capacity of institutions to meet their needs and desires. In 2020, she was awarded the Faculty of Arts Award for Distinction in Research. Professor Stolle is currently working with Professor Maria Popova on a project that examines the variations and sources of support for Ukraine and its resistance to Russian aggression among Europeans.

William Dawson Scholars  

, Professor jointly appointed in the Department of Political Science and the Institute for the Study of International Development where she is currently Director, has had her William Dawson Scholar award renewed this year. The William Dawson Scholars award recognizes associate and assistant professors with demonstrated potential to become global leaders in their field.

A leading scholar in the field of refugee and forced migration studies, Professor Bradley’s research focuses on refugees and internal displacement, humanitarianism, disasters, transitional justice and accountability for massive human rights violations, with particular interest in the roles of international organizations such as the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration. Professor Bradley is co-founder and currently serves as the coordinator of and created and convenes the Groupe de recherche sur les conditions modernes des réfugiés, a bilingual network linking faculty and graduate students working on forced migration across Quebec. She also serves as the co-editor of both the Journal of Refugee Studies and the 91ºÚÁÏÍø-Queen's University Press Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Series.