[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Coleman_William.jpg” caption=”Dr. William Coleman is a recipient of the 2007 Trudeau Fellowship. Photo courtesy of the Trudeau Foundation.”]William D. Coleman, a Distinguished University Professor, author and researcher, was awarded a 2007 Trudeau Fellowship by the Trudeau Foundation for outstanding contributions to the social sciences and humanities in Canada and around the world. The recipients were announced on Monday, May 7.

Coleman has published groundbreaking work on policy networks, and is known as an innovator in the field of globalization studies.

A professor in McMaster's Department of Political Science, founder and current director of the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, he was appointed Canada Research Chair on Global Governance and Public Policy in 2001, and the following year assumed the role of project director of the SSHRCC-funded Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI) Globalization and Autonomy. The project has involved 40 colleagues in a number of disciplines from across Canada, and another 43 from outside the country.

Coleman is also the co-editor and director of the Globalization and Autonomy series of books that will be published by the University of British Columbia Press beginning in late 2007.

“The first thing I learned about globalization is that it's not easily squeezed into one disciplinary ray,” Coleman explains. “You simply cannot fully understand it through the lens of sociology, anthropology or history. You really have to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue to get a handle on it.”

As the five-year project nears its conclusion, Coleman sees a real need for more dialogue between scholars in the north with their peers in the south. He believes the globalization studies field is dominated by scholars from the wealthier countries.

“And I think if we are to understand globalization, we must build up relationships with scholars from poorer countries, which experience globalization in distinct ways,” says Coleman.

The Trudeau Fellowship will be devoted to making the results of current research more accessible to non-academic audiences.

“I gained some experience in this endeavour through the Globalization and Autonomy project,” Coleman says. “I think it's also important to mobilize and encourage other scholars to do so as well.”

Up to five Trudeau Fellows are chosen each year in recognition of outstanding achievement, innovative approaches to issues of public policy and commitment to public engagement. The Foundation provides support for Fellows to make extraordinary contributions in their fields through leading-edge research and creative work.

The Trudeau Fellowships are unsolicited prizes and the selection criteria include:

(1) creative thinking to the highest international standards of the given discipline;

(2) an outstanding ability to communicate the results of research to other researchers and scholars, and to the general public;

(3) a commitment to work with Foundation Scholars and Mentors; and

(4) interest in one or more of the four themes of the Foundation, and a desire to contribute to public dialogue around those themes.

Independent and non-partisan, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation was established in March 2002 with an endowment of $125 million from the Canadian federal government to honour the great humanitarian spirit of the former Prime Minister.