By McGill Reporter Staff
Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi has been reappointed to a second five-year term, effective July1, 2011, Principal Heather Munroe-Blum has announced.
Manfredi, former Chair of the Department of Political Science, is an leading scholar and authority on the role of the judiciary in democratic societies especially the Supreme Court, principally Canada and the United States. His research focuses on law and the courts with a particular emphasis on the political and policy impact of rights litigation.
He served last year on a committee to advise the prime minister on the selection of a new governor general.
Arriving at McGill in 1988 as a Canada Research Fellow and Assistant Professor, Manfredi has since served as co-editor the Canadian Journal of Political Science (1996-1999) and as a special guest on the editorial committee of the Annual Review of Law and Social Science (2005). He is a member of the “College of Reviewers” for the Canada Research Chairs program. He has held or still holds research grants from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Donner Canadian Foundation and the Max Bell Foundation.
The major accomplishments of Dean Manfredi’s first term include extensive renewal and reorganization of the Faculty’s physical space, significant increases in external research funding and philanthropic support, the establishment of five new interdisciplinary institutes and research centres, enhanced student advising services, expansion of the Arts Internship Program, and new humanities initiatives such as a writer-in-residence program and a senior faculty appointment in digital humanities. Dean Manfredi has also made outstanding contributions outside
the University through his continuing service as a member of the governing board of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and as a member of the special committee to advise the Prime Minister on the selection of the Governor General.
Born in Toronto and raised in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Manfredi earned a BA and MA from the University of Calgary and an MA and PhD from the Claremont Graduate University (California). He has published extensively in academic and professional journals and is a highly regarded political and legal commentator. He has written four books: Judicial Power and the Charter: Canada and the Paradox of Liberal Constitutionalism (1st and 2nd editions); The Supreme Court and Juvenile Justice; Feminist Activism in the Supreme Court: Legal Mobilization and the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (winner of the Canadian Law and Society Association’s Best Book Award), and Judging Democracy (with Mark Rush). He also co-edited The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Reflections on the Charter after Twenty Years.