Two McMaster professors named to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

Two McMaster professors are McMaster’s newest members of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, the country’s first national system to recognize multidisciplinary work in emerging intellectual leaders.

Chandrima Chakraborty, a professor of English and cultural studies, is an expert on the 1985 Air India bombings and post-9/11 violence against South Asians. James MacKillop, the Peter Boris Chair in Addictions Research, specializes in the causes and treatments of addictions.

“This is an important recognition of multidisciplinary, community-engaged research,” says Chakraborty. “I hope it will allow me to continue to advance understanding of different, little-known and difficult histories, and facilitate informed, public engagement with diverse knowledge-holders.

“I am delighted to have this opportunity to enrich local, national and global conversations on public memory and cultural history and interact with a wider community of interdisciplinary Canadian scholars at the RSC.”

The College, launched in 2014, joins the Royal Society’s academies of arts, humanities and science, and recognizes scholars, artists and scientists in the early stages in their career – gathering influential thinkers together in a single group in order to foster multidisciplinary perspectives on a variety of issues.

“I am very honoured to be inducted into the Royal Society’s College of New Scholars and am in very august company,” says MacKillop. “It is a very welcome recognition of the multidisciplinary approach we apply in the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research and the DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research. Although it is challenging, the questions we are asking cannot be answered by any single discipline, so multiple lens are essential to advance the field.”

Membership in the College is for up to seven years, and up to 80 members are recognized annually.

“My sincere congratulations to Professor Chakraborty and Professor MacKillop,” says David Farrar, McMaster’s acting president. “This prestigious recognition is a well-deserved acknowledgement of their commitment to rigorous scholarship and their accomplishments within their respective fields.”