St. Francis Xavier University will honour two individuals for their exemplary and distinguished service when it awards honorary degrees during Spring Convocation 2023 to former Coady Institute director and international development leader, Dr. John Gaventa, and to Dr. Irving Rootman, internationally recognized for his four decades of outstanding leadership in health promotion.
Spring Convocation will take place at the Charles V. Keating Centre on the StFX campus on Sunday, May 7. StFX will graduate around 1,000 students in morning and afternoon ceremonies.
Dr. Gaventa will address the morning convocation. Dr. Rootman will share videotaped remarks during the afternoon ceremony.
Full bios on the honorary degree recipients follow.
Dr. John Gaventa has made significant contributions to grassroots adult education, academic scholarship, and international development over a distinguished career of nearly 50 years. Throughout his work, he has sought to use his research and leadership to support community driven efforts for social change and social justice. A former Director of the Coady Institute and Vice-President, International at StFX, Dr. Gaventa is currently a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, a leading global institution for development research, based at the University of Sussex. Dr. Gaventa was born in the United States, but was raised in Nigeria, where his parents were medical missionaries. He returned to the U.S. to attend Vanderbilt University, and later received his D. Phil. in politics from Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. After graduation, Dr. Gaventa returned to the U.S. and helped lead a grassroots adult educational program at the Highlander Research and Education Centre in Tennessee, where he later served as director.
Dr. Gaventa went on to serve as a professor and fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, where he became team leader of the IDS Participation Group, and later Director of Research. While at IDS, he has led several large scale collaborative international research programs on themes of citizen participation, local governance and accountability, working with local partners around the world. Internationally respected in his field, he has written widely on issues of citizen-led development and action and has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Tisch Civic Engagement Research Prize from Tufts University.
His first book, Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley, broke new ground in the study of social power and won several major academic prizes. In addition to academic activities, Dr. Gaventa has volunteered many hours working with community groups and non-governmental initiatives. He became a member of the Council of Trustees of Oxfam UK, and later served as its chair. For his work at Oxfam, Dr. Gaventa was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2012.
Dr. Irving Rootman is recognized internationally for his outstanding leadership in health promotion. Over his four decade career in public service and academia, he has been dedicated to effecting positive change in health policy and practice with a commitment to addressing health equity and social justice. He has worked as a researcher, research manager, and educator in the federal government, the World Health Organization, the University of Toronto, and the University of Victoria. Dr. Rootman holds a BA (honours) in sociology/psychology from the University of Alberta and a M.Phil and a PhD in sociology from Yale University.
He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and holds an honorary degree from the University of Victoria. Dr. Rootman started his career at the University of Calgary, where he researched alcohol and drug use. He accepted a post-doctoral award in England, which resulted in 18 research papers on drug use, mental health and suicide. Returning to Canada, he was hired as chief of epidemiology and social research by the Directorate on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, then part of Health and Welfare Canada. He went on to serve as chief of health promotion studies in the Health Promotion Directorate of Health and Welfare Canada; led the landmark Canadian Health Promotion Survey; and served as a professor, University of Toronto, where he helped establish the Centre for Health Promotion, becoming its first director. He was later named Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Distinguished Scholar at the University of Victoria, where he also served as executive director, Health and Learning Knowledge Centre.
Dr. Rootman has served on many task forces and panels, and is recognized for his scholarly accomplishments. His leadership prompted webinars in collaboration with the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health at StFX. Although retired, he remains active: he is a member of the Executive Committee of Health Promotion Canada, as well as Chair of the Academic Committee; a member of the Professional Development Working Group; and a member of the Capacity-Building Committee for the Public Health Association of BC.
