The Department of Political Science is saddened to have learned that our former colleague, Professor emeritus Vincent Seymour Wilson, passed away in January. Please find his obituary here.
Vincent Seymour Wilson joined the Department of Political Science in 1969. He later transferred to the School of Public Administration (as it was then called) but returned to Political Science in the 1980s. He retired in 1997. He remained active as a scholar long into his retirement.
Vincent was a specialist in Canadian public policy and administration. According to research by Joanna Everitt, he was one of the first two Black political scientists with a tenure-track position in Canadian academia. His work engaged with various aspects of the Canadian public service, including recruitment and issues of diversity. He was a long-time editor of Canadian Public Administration.
Vincent served as Chair of the Department of Political Science between 1994 and 1997 and was President of the Canadian Political Science Association 1992-93. His 1993 CPSA Presidential Address reminded political scientists of the need to study both the history of racism and ethnocentrism in Canada and the country’s current cultural and ethnic diversity.
The Department of Political Science will remember Vincent as a passionate and good humoured leader, and as a dedicated mentor to junior colleagues. Above all, we will remember his scholarship, which remains relevant today. Vincent himself was humbled by the continued interest in his work. “As I walk into the sunset of my life”, he wrote in an email exchange in 2021, “it is satisfying to see the acknowledgement of one’s past endeavours.”
May he rest in peace.