Joseph Heath receives Killam Research Fellowship

Joseph Heath, a professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science’s department of philosophy has been awarded a Killam Research Fellowship from the Canada Council for the Arts.

“I am pleased and honored to have been awarded a Killam Research Fellowship,” says Heath. “The project that I will be working on is entirely new, yet also represents a return to my roots as a student of critical theory.”

The two-year fellowship, valued at $70,000 per year, is intended to support research projects of broad significance and widespread interest. Heath's project will address a foundational issue in modern scholarship – how to criticize society. He will create a handbook of best critical practices for social scientists, emphasizing a need for social critics to be transparent concerning their own evaluative standards. 

“Throughout my career, I have been active not only in philosophical research, but also in public debates on a wide range of issues. This project is my opportunity to reflect upon those experiences and attempt to sort out what works and what doesn't, and what academics have to offer when they weigh in on political questions.” 

A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Heath received a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship in 2012 and the 2014 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for his book of popular philosophy, Enlightenment 2.0.