Faculty of Law professor William E. Conklin received the highest honour in Canadian academia recently when he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

The society is Canada’s national academy and exists to promote Canadian research and scholarly accomplishment, to recognize academic and artistic excellence and to advise governments, non-governmental organizations and Canadians on matters of public interest. Fellows are elected by their peers in recognition of outstanding scholarly, scientific and artistic accomplishments and are considered to be at the pinnacle of achievement in their discipline.

Dr. Conklin’s academic achievements include original, internationally recognized contributions to jurisprudence, Canadian constitutional and international law, legal philosophy and legal education.

Biology professor Lisa Porter and music professor Sally Bick were also honoured by the Royal Society as Members of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. This award recognizes an emerging generation of academics for achievement and intellectual leadership.

Dr. Bick explores music through the lens of politics, capturing the political undercurrents challenging assumptions about music, musical meaning and the role and status of the modernist art composer.

Dr. Porter is a leader in characterizing novel aspects of cell growth control and has discovered unique mechanisms linking development, maintenance regeneration and human disease. She is a strong advocate of relating research to the public and has initiated a unique movement to build translational research opportunities between Southwestern Ontario and Michigan.

“Royal Society fellowship and recognition as an emerging scholar are extraordinarily high honours for those pursuing academic endeavours,” says K.W. Michael Siu, UWindsor vice-president, research and innovation. “The research contributions of Drs. Conklin, Porter and Bick and their academic colleagues are an important part of helping the University of Windsor reach its research goals of meeting the challenges of viable, healthy and safe communities; healthy Great Lakes; sustainable industry and understanding borders.”

Past Royal Society inductees include:

Dr. Gordon Drake, Academy of Science; the late Dr. Byron Rourke, Academy of Social Sciences; Dr. John McConkey, Academy of Science; Alistair MacLeod, Academy of the Arts and Humanities; Professor Brian Fryer, Academy of Science; Dr. Ralph Johnson, Academy of the Arts and Humanities; Dr. K.W. Michael Siu, Academy of Science; Thomas Dilworth, Academy of the Arts and Humanities; Iain Baxter&, Academy of the Arts and Humanities.

Although Cuba’s first republic, which lasted from 1902 to the 1930s, ended in the Batista dictatorship, it represents a crucial time in the nation’s development, says UWindsor historian Steven Palmer.

A symposium at the University of Windsor on the period, which brought together Canadian, Cuban, Spanish and American historians, spawned a book on the subject, edited by Dr. Palmer along with his colleagues José Antonio Piqueras and Amparo Sánchez Cobos of the Universitat Jaume I in Castellón, Spain.

Duke University Press published State of Ambiguity: Civic Life and Culture in Cuba’s First Republic in April.

“Basically it was the birth of Cuban civil society and democratic politics,” says Palmer, Canada Research Chair in History of International Health. “Things went tragically wrong, but the authors reject the argument that just because it ends poorly means there’s nothing to talk about.”

Palmer says this period saw a lot of civic infrastructure built in Cuba, from public buildings to highways, the establishment of independent scientific institutions, and a flourishing literary world.

“There was a real expansion of literary and journalistic cultures. Lots and lots of newspapers, periodicals, journals as a manifestation of the richness of democratic life, of that time,” Palmer says.

His chapter in the book focuses on the country’s medical development. He says it is important to bring those aspects into mainstream discussion: “The history of medicine and health there was central to the political story and central to what was going on in Cuban life.”

The May 2010 symposium attracted scholars working on different aspects of Cuban history. Pooling their research into a comprehensive book specifically covering Cuba’s first republic seemed like a natural progression.

“This time period in Cuban history doesn’t get talked about much for a variety of reasons, but with Cubans today working toward greater democracy, it is important to recall this period of intense democratic creativity,” says Palmer.

Are you ready for Windsor Wednesdays? A project of the Lancer Nation student club, it offers a prize draw for students wearing Lancer- or UWindsor-themed apparel around the campus every Wednesday.

Now the club is teaming up with the Office of Public Affairs and Communications to help participants get spotted.

“We are going to set up a photo booth with the UWindsor logo wall as a backdrop,” says Tim Brunet, social media coordinator. “It’s a great place to have your picture taken for online profile pictures or you can mix it up with a fun group shot.”

He promises to e-mail models the photos for their use online, and lists three easy steps for those interested:

Step one

• Wear UWindsor or Lancer gear on Wednesday.

Step two

• Get noticed wearing UWindsor or Lancer gear to get a ballot to win prizes. You can be noticed by going to the Leddy Library lobby between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. or the photo booth in the CAW Student Centre Commons from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Alternatively, alumni may participate by taking a picture of themselves wearing UWindsor gear, posting it on Instagram and using #uwindsor or #lancernation. If your picture gets reposted at instagram.com/uwindsor, you will automatically receive a ballot to win prizes and we will notify you on Instagram that you have won a prize.

Step three

• Submit your ballot at the Campus Bookstore and wait until Friday to see whether you win a prize.

For more information about Windsor Wednesdays, contact Rob Crawford at crawfor1@uwindsor.ca or Brunet at tbrunet@uwindsor.ca.

Social work student Rebecca Fraser donned a UWindsor T-shirt and befriended Lancer mascot Winston for a double hit of Windsor Wednesday on November 12.