UVic Constitutional Expert Awarded Killam Prize

Constitutional expert Dr. James Tully, University of Victoria professor and one of the foremost political theorists of our time, was awarded the 2010 Killam Prize for the Humanities today from the Canada Council for the Arts.  Tully is the first UVic faculty member to receive a Killam Prize and the only scholar in Western Canada this year to win this prestigious award.

“I am deeply honoured and humbled by this award,” says Tully. He receives the award in recognition of his distinguished career and exceptional contributions to Canadian scholarship and public life.

The $100,000 Killam prize is given to distinguished Canadian scholars by the Canada Council for the Arts at the bequest of Dorothy J. Killam and in memory of the exceptional achievements of Izaak Walton Killam. One prize is awarded annually in each of five fields: health sciences; natural sciences; engineering; social sciences; and humanities.

Tully has developed a public philosophy that employs contemporary political theory and its history to throw light on the pressing local and global problems of our age in a way that enables citizens to think and act critically in response to them. At the heart of his work on specific problems—from minority rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples to global inequality and the environmental crisis—is his focus on civic freedom and the capacities of citizens to act cooperatively and effectively in addressing these complex problems.

“I would like to thank the Canada Council and the Killam family for this great honour,” adds Tully. “I am humbled because the research that this prize recognizes would not be possible without the collaboration of a whole network of colleagues, students and staff over many years and universities who have helped to support, inspire and create it. I realize that I receive this award on their behalf and I wish to thank each and every one of them. In particular, I would like to thank UVic, the best university in the world for this kind of interdisciplinary research and teaching. Finally, I wish to thank the person to whom I owe the most—my wife, Debra Higgins Tully.”

Tully is the author or editor of nine books and over 100 articles and public lectures that have been translated into several languages. The best introduction is Strange multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an age of diversity, one of the most widely read texts in political theory in the world. His most recent work, Public Philosophy in a New Key applies his approach to a wide range of current problems. It has already prompted a number of special workshops and panels, including with the American Political Science Association, the European University Institute, Cambridge University and the University of London.

A Fellow of the Royal Society and the Trudeau Foundation, Tully received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, three years after his BA at the University of British Columbia. He has held positions at McGill University and the University of Toronto, and is UVic’s Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Law, Indigenous Governance and Philosophy.

Visit www.canadacouncil.ca/home-e.htm for award details and information about the program.

High-resolution photos of Dr. Tully will be posted at the Canada Council for Arts website.

Dr. Tully is attending the awards ceremony today at the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences in Toronto at 10 a.m. EST, therefore is only available by email or via the UVic communications contacts listed below.
 

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