Professor Emeritus Bruce Berman passed away on January 6, 2024 in Kingston, at the age of 81.  His obituary is available here through the James Reid Funeral Home.   

After spending 1968-69 at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, and in 1970 as an instructor at Yale, Professor Berman was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at Queen's in 1971.

Professor Berman's major field of interest was in the political economy of development, with special reference to Africa. He conducted research in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa. During his years at Queen's, he taught undergraduate courses in African politics, the politics of science and technology, and a graduate seminar in development theory. Professor Berman was widely acknowledged as one of Canada's leading experts on African politics: he served as president of the Canadian Association of African Studies from 1990-91, and co-chair of the national program committee for the 1994 annual meeting of the African Studies Association of the U.S. In 2003 he was elected vice-president of the ASA and became president of the ASA in November 2004.

Professor Berman published widely in the field of African politics, with two of his books winning prizes: Control and Crisis in Colonial Kenya: the Dialectic of Domination (1990) won the Joel Gregory Prize in 1991, and Unhappy Valley: Conflict in Kenya and Africa (1992) won the Trevor Reese Memorial Prize in 1994. More recent publications include Critical Perspectives on Politics and Socio-Economic Development in Ghana (edited with W. Tettey and K. Puplampu, Brill, 2003), Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa (edited with W. Kymlicka and D. Eyoh, Ohio University Press, and James Currey, 2004), and “‘A Palimpsest of Contradictions': Ethnicity, Class and Politics in Africa,” in the International Journal of African Historical Studies (2004).

Students whose doctoral theses were supervised by Professor Berman are now in government service or teaching and researching in Canada, the West Indies, South Africa, Kenya, and Rwanda. In 2003 he was nominated for the Geoffrey Marshall Mentoring Award offered by the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools. Professor Berman was a founding member of the Research Group on Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Multicultural Citizenship (RGoNEMC) at Queen's.  He retired from Queen's in 2003.  

Biography

Rida was born in Tayibe and raised in Jaffa, Palestine. He is interested in the factors that facilitate and obstruct political mobilization among indigenous and national groups, with an emphasis on the Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Rida received B.A and M.A degrees from Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (2014, 2015), and an additional M.A from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA (2017). Before matriculating at Queen’s, he worked as a data coordinator at B’tselem, a leading civil society organization that covers human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Terrirotires. In his spare time, he writes op-eds, and he blogs.

Research Interests

Comparative politics of nationalism, ethnicity and race, International Relations, social movements, Middle East politics, Israel-Palestine, peace and conflict, human rights, international law, democratization.

Awards

2022  Ontario Graduate Scholarship

2022  R. Samuel McLaughlin Fellowship

2020  Mitacs Research Training Award

2018 – 2022  Principal's International Doctoral Award

2018 – 2022  Queen’s Graduate Award

Teaching

Teaching fellow:

POLS 348 – Middle East Politics (Fall 2021, 2022)

Teaching assistant:

POLS 285 – Introduction to Statistics (Winter 2023)

POLS 244 – Democracy and Democratization (Winter 2022)

POLS 261 – International Politics (Fall 2020)

POLS 242 – Contemporary Regimes (Winter 2019, 2020)

POLS 243 – State, Nation and Democracy (Fall 2018, 2019, 2020)

POLS 285 – Introduction to Statistics (Winter 2023)

Dr. Jayant Lele is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Political Studies, Sociology, and Global Development Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. He has taught courses on Critical Social Theory, Comparative Politics of Developing Societies, and political sociology. After post-graduate education from Poona University, he was awarded a doctoral studies fellowship by the Ford Foundation and a research fellowship by the American Institute of Indian Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Development Sociology from Cornell University. He has served as the Head of the Sociology Department, and as the Coordinator and Chair of the program for Study in National and International Development. He was also the founder coordinator of the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen's University. He was Visiting Professor at the Centre for International Studies, Cornell University, and at the department of Politics of Poona University and has been a Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. He served as the President of the Canadian Association of South Asian Studies and as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Asian Studies Association of Canada. He was the Resident Director of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute in New Delhi from 1981-82 and was its President between 1996 and 1998. He received senior faculty fellowships of the Institute in 1981-82 for the study of the social history of Maharashtra and in 1988-89 for the study of language and Society in South Asia. Professor Lele was the Convener of the Evaluation Programme of the International Centre for the Advancement of Community-based Rehabilitation - ICACBR - (a CIDA Centre of Excellence at Queen’s University) and served as a member of its Board of Directors, on its Taskforce on Sustainability, and its representative on the Disability Subcommittee of the United Nations Regional Interorganizational Committee for the Asia Pacific (RICAP).

Professor Lele’s recent research includes work on colonial and post-colonial analyses of image-worship in India and changes in the political economy of districts of Maharashtra. Professor Lele's research interests include studies of rural and national politics in India and of party politics in Canada, evaluation of public policy processes and community-based programs, critical reinterpretation of the modernity of tradition as well as the political economy of India, Southeast Asia, and Canada. He is the author, co-author, or editor of a number of articles and books including, Tradition and Modernity in Bhakti Movements, Elite Pluralism and Class Rule, Language and Society, State, and Society in India, Explorations in Indian Sociolinguistics, Hindutva: The Emergence of the Right, Unravelling the Asian Miracle, Asia: Who Pays for Growth?, Globalization and civil society in Asia (Palgrave 2004) and Democratic Transitions and Social Movements in Asia(Palgrave 2004), Some Landmarks in the History of Ideas (U). The Landmarks volume was translated into Marathi and published by Unique Academy in 2013.

Edwin Robert Black passed away in Kitchener, Ontario, on December 1, 2023, at the age of 94. 

The following obituary is from the Henry Walser Funeral Home website.

Ed was born in 1929 in Toronto and grew up in Long Branch during the Great Depression and the Second World War. His parents were Lily Pearl McKinley (a Bell telephone operator) and Frederick Black (a carpenter). Like his father, Ed was actively engaged in the Boy Scout movement, and eventually became a King’s Scout, the highest achievement in the scouting world. It gave him a set of skills that were to come in very handy in the years to come. When the Second World War arrived, his father joined the army and the remaining family (which by then included four children) was left with few financial resources. Their resourceful mother who had a positive, cheerful outlook on life, was able to compensate in many ways for the lack of material wealth. Ed, the eldest of the siblings (followed by Earl, Ralph, and Carol) inherited his parents’ gregarious personalities, and was very intelligent and inquisitive. He did well in school, participating in clubs and serving as business manager to the Avalanche, the high school yearbook. Always a hard worker, Ed picked up many jobs to help with his family’s finances, including stints as a ditch digger, ice carrier (for the iceboxes), and truck driver - whatever he could find in those challenging times.  
 
After high school he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at the University of Western Ontario. He distinguished himself in his final year by winning a scholarship in journalism. Following graduation, he worked as a newspaper reporter and editor in a number of places, including Queen’s Park, Montreal, Hamilton, Kapuskasing, and Vancouver.
 
On October 25, 1952, he married Anne Euphemia Cover, marking the beginning of a long, mutually-supportive partnership—one that was to last over 70 years. Three children followed: Robert Evan (1953), Catherine Pearl (1955) and Mary Louise (1957), all of whom benefited from the friendly, engaged, and inquisitive natures of both their parents. A parental emphasis on reading, camping, racquet sports, family games, and the encouragement of independent thinking, made for a very enriched upbringing for the children. Family dinners often included an eclectic mix of people from all over the world. After completing graduate work, Ed became a university professor and at Christmas break, Anne always sent Ed to the university to invite for dinner any international students who could not get home for the holiday.
 
Ed would not have become an academic if Anne had not encouraged him to pursue his studies. While still working nights as a journalist for the Vancouver Province, he earned a Master of Arts degree in political science at the University of British Columbia.  After he won a modest scholarship to undertake a PhD at Duke University in North Carolina, the family of five headed off, camping across the country, with all their worldly belongings loaded into trailer hitched behind a little Morris Minor. The trailer broke down somewhere in the prairies so Ed and Anne piled what belongings they could around their three kids in the car and left the rest behind on the side of the road and completed their journey south. In Durham, N.C., the family subsisted on a small stipend. Anne took care of the kids while Ed worked day and night. With almost all their belongings abandoned by the roadside, ever resourceful Ed hammered together functional furniture from fibreboard. He splashed on a dark wood stain as a finishing touch—his “go-to” approach for any of the household carpentry jobs in the many decades to follow. He completed his PhD in two years, including the rigorous comprehensive exams, and French and German language requirements. The clean copy of his dissertation was carefully typed by Anne at night after the kids were in bed. That dissertation would serve as the foundation for his well-known book on Canadian federalism: Divided Loyalties. In years to follow, he and a group of colleagues and friends (including Alan Cairns, Don Smiley, Ron Watts, and Richard Simeon) made notable contributions to the field of Canadian federalism.  After Duke University, Ed began his distinguished academic career in the political science department at the University of British Columbia.
 
He joined Queen’s University in 1967. He published books and articles on a wide range of subjects, including federalism, Canadian politics, political communications, and public administration. An 18-month leave period allowed him to join the staff of the House of Commons, where, under the leadership of Robert Stanfield, he set up and directed the Research Office of the Official Opposition. Later, as director of Queen’s School of Public Administration, he set up the Master of Public Administration program for working public servants. A long-time member of McGill-Queen’s University Press, he also held organizational positions at the Centre for Resource Studies, the Institute for Inter-Governmental Relations, and the Canadian Journal of Political Science. He was president of the Canadian Political Science Association and also served as head of the Department of Political Studies. He retired from Queen’s in 1994. 
 
At his retirement party, all the guests turned up wearing bowties, to honour his unique sartorial style. Former colleagues, staff, and students remarked on his rigorous, energetic, and accomplished leadership, as well as his exemplary approach to teaching, research, and administration—an approach they said instilled in them a desire to strive for their very best.  His eclectic interests included both setting up and maintaining the first computers in the political science department. Students were loyal, devoted, and very appreciative, although often intimidated by his daunting (sometimes terrifying) ability at intellectual jousting.  Many have commented on being on the sharp point of one of his ripostes. They made sure they were well-prepared for class! Nevertheless, he was a highly sought-after graduate student advisor.
 
Ed was an outstanding mentor to his students, colleagues, children and so many others. He was honest, wise, fair, patient and kind, typically giving others the benefit of the doubt, including those students and junior instructors who tried the patience of many of his colleagues. A pacifist and a progressive, Ed believed strongly in good governance, and a tolerant, just society. Well ahead of his time, in 1972 he published a paper advocating for guaranteed annual minimum income for all Canadians.
 
After retirement, Ed travelled West to spend a few years helping to launch the University of Northern British Columbia, then settled in Kitchener-Waterloo, where for a brief time he served as an adjunct professor in the University of Waterloo's Political Science department and on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Political Science.
 
In the three decades that followed, he contributed his considerable energies to various community causes, winning a number of “outstanding volunteer” awards. He rarely attended the award ceremonies; he preferred to engage in numerous other activities that occupied his busy mind. In his words he “… fiddled a lot helping seniors with their computers, organized district senior summer games and terrorized others on area golf courses.” And that was only a fraction of his diverse pursuits, which also included being a lifelong supporter of the local symphony. During retirement, he and Anne were able to pursue their passion for travel, appreciating different cultures and traditions in many parts of the world.
 
A few months before he passed away, his devoted wife, Anne, died. They cared for, and took care of, each other until the end. Ed is survived by his sister Carol Simone Kay, his three children, Robert Black (Cathy), Catherine Cook (William), Mary Louise Kattides (Evangelos), seven grandchildren, John (Lisa), Catherine (Paul), William (Beyza), Christina (Joel), Mary Alexandra (Brandon), David, and Christine (Conor), and five great-grandchildren, Benjamin, William, Nathan, William, and Jack.

John Alexander Wilson Gunn, a world-renowned scholar in 17th and 18th-century political thought, died March 7, 2023, in Kingston. Known professionally as J.A.W. Gunn, he was called Jock by family and friends. Jock is survived by his partner Mary Jane; children James and Andrea (Manuel); and brother Ted (Louise).

Jock was born in Quebec City in 1937. He earned an honours B.A. in politics and history from Queen's University in 1959; an M.A. in political economy from the University of Toronto in 1961; and a D. Phil. from Nuffield College, University of Oxford, in 1966.

Jock joined the Queen’s Political and Economic Science department in 1960 as a lecturer while still completing his graduate studies. His professors at Queen’s, John Meisel and Alec Corry, had recognized their former student’s spark of brilliance, and wanted to bring him back to Kingston. After Jock completed his doctoral studies, he returned to Queen’s to support the nascent Department of Political Studies under the direction of Meisel, who later wrote in his memoirs:

In Jock Gunn, we recruited a peerless scholar whose extensive command of the literature and commitment to a lofty ideal of a university added a significant dimension to what we had to offer.

Jock’s doctoral thesis (directed by John Plamenatz) was later published as Politics and the Public Interest in the Seventeenth Century (1969). In 1971, he published Factions No More: Attitudes to Party in Government and Opposition in Eighteenth-Century England.

While still a student, Jock worked with Frontier College, supporting that organization’s goal to bring literacy and the love of reading to adult learners. As a professor, Jock challenged his students to read deeply, think critically, and write clearly and sensibly. In his classroom, Jock never relied on notes: in his lectures, he spoke both spontaneously and eloquently on political ideas and ideals. His classes were designed to spark intellectual curiosity and to help his students utilize existing - or develop new - skills in comprehension, inquiry, and analysis. In addition to his undergraduate teaching, Jock supervised 14 doctoral students. Many of his students, both undergraduate and graduate, kept in touch with him decades after they graduated. Some of his best students went on to become writers, journalists, diplomats, lawyers, policymakers, and teachers; Jock followed each of their career paths with interest.

Between 1975 and 1983, Jock served as head of the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s. There, he was one of three editors of the first two volumes of the letters of Benjamin Disraeli (1982). Jock’s next book, Beyond Liberty and Property: The Process of Self-Recognition in Eighteenth-Century Political Thought, was published in 1983. This work, drawing upon a variety of primary sources, from newspapers and political pamphlets to parliamentary debates, sermons, and private correspondence, offered a bold new approach to the understanding of the public mind and political ideas in Britain. That year, Jock was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of his remarkable contributions to the social sciences.

Later turning to the study of French political ideas, Jock published Queen of the World: Opinion in the Public Life of France from the Renaissance to the Revolution in 1995. The same year, succeeding his colleague John Meisel, he was appointed by the Queen’s Board of Trustees the Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Political Studies, a position that honours outstanding contribution to the field of political studies. His citation noted that Jock was “one of the department’s most distinguished academics over the past three decades. His international reputation in political thought has brought credit both to the department and the university.” Jock allocated a portion of the funds associated with the Peacock Chair to purchase items for the British Political Pamphlets Collection at the Queen’s University Library. He also contributed his expertise in recommending notable and rare acquisitions for the library.

Jock retired officially from Queen’s in 2002 but, for several years and due to popular demand, came back to teach undergraduate courses. His last book, When the French Tried to Be British: Party, Opposition, and the Quest for Civil Disagreement 1814 - 1848, was published in 2009.

Jock’s family thanks those who supported him in his last months, notably the staff at Cataraqui Heights Retirement Residence; St. Elizabeth’s Nursing Services; Home and Community Care Support Services; and Dr. Marie Colantonio.

Donations in Jock’s memory may be made to Queen’s University to be directed to the British Political Pamphlets Collection at W. D. Jordan Rare Books, Queen's University Library, or to a charity of your choice.

A reception in Jock’s memory was held on March 25, 2023 at James Reid Funeral Home in Kingston.

Before coming to Queen's in 1975 Colin Leys taught at Balliol College, Oxford; Kivukoni College in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda; and the Universities of Sussex, Nairobi, and Sheffield. His work has primarily been on the theory and politics of development, with particular reference to Africa and the UK. His publications include European Politics in Southern Rhodesia (Oxford, 1959); Underdevelopment in Kenya;The Political Economy of Neocolonialism (James Currey and University of California Press, 1975); Politics in Britain (2nd edition, Verso, 1989); Namibia's Liberation Struggle; The Two-Edged Sword (with John S. Saul and others, James Currey, 1995); The Rise and Fall of Development Theory (James Currey, 1996); The End of Parliamentary Socialism (with Leo Panitch, Verso, 1997); and Market Driven-Politics: Neoliberal Democracy and the Public Interest (Verso, 2001).

Professor Emeritus Colin Leys retired from Queen's Department of Political Studies in 1996.

Brief Biography

Charles Pentland was born in Montreal. He completed his BA with Double Honours in Political Science and International Studies at UBC (1965); his MA in Political Science at UBC (1966); and a PhD in International Relations at the University of London,School of Economics and Political Science (1970).

Charles joined the Department of Political Studies at Queen's in 1969 and was a full professor from 1982 until his retirement in 2015, teaching subjects encompassing international organizations, global governance, the EU, Canadian foreign policy, IPE and IR theory. He also served as the Head of Department from 1987-92. Throughout his career, he held several visiting positions at the Institut d'Etudes Europeennes, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales et Communautaires, Universite d'Aix-Marseille, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Cambridge.  Charles also served as co-editor of the Journal of European Integration and of the international Journal and spent eight years as Director of the Queen's Centre for International Relations.

Charles' research spans a great many topics and issues of international relations and comparative politics, but his most recent interests are concerned with the political development and external relations of the European Union, in particular the security implications of its enlargement to include countries in Central and Eastern Europe, its role in the Balkans, and its development of a common foreign and security policy.