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Public intellectuals fêted at fall convocation 

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Honorary doctorates of law will be awarded at fall convocation ceremonies on Nov. 11 to an art historian and a writer-activist.

For more than 25 years, Charles C. Hill has been Curator of Canadian Art for the National Gallery of Canada, and was a key player in the creation of its permanent Canadian collection.

He curated some groundbreaking shows at the National Gallery, including Canadian Painting in the Thirties (1975) and considerations of the work of Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. Hill’s exhibitions of the Group of Seven have travelled to Scandinavia, Mexico, and recently, to China.

He has been connected with Concordia in recent years through his membership on the advisory board of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art. He is working on a biography of the late Montreal art dealer Max Stern.

While a graduate student at the University of Toronto in the late 1960s, Hill founded the first openly gay association in Canada after same-sex relationships between consenting adults were decriminalized.

Heather Menzies has had an active career as a writer, speaker and social activist. She is the author of seven books, including Whose Brave New World? and No Time: Stress and the Crisis of Modern Life. She has written or made videos on feminism and technology, and is a passionate defender of public culture, calling for a renewal of our institutions and ourselves.

Currently an adjunct professor and sessional lecturer at Carleton University, she has served on several thesis committees at Concordia.

Menzies will receive her doctorate at the Arts and Science ceremony at 10 a.m. Hill will receive his at the combined Engineering and Computer Science-Fine Arts ceremony at 7 p.m. The JMSB ceremony, at 3 p.m., will not include an honorary doctorate. All ceremonies take place Sunday in the Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of Place des Arts.