Gerontology Professor Dr. Bill Randall and English Professor Dr. Tony Tremblay Awarded Rank of Professor Emeritus Â
St. Thomas University professors Dr. Bill Randall and Dr. Tony Tremblay have been awarded the rank of Professor Emeritus.
“In two distinct academic fields, both have built impressive records of accomplishment in teaching, research, and service, and their scholarly work has had a significant impact beyond our campus and in society, both nationally and internationally,” said Dr. Kim Fenwick, President and Vice-Chancellor (Acting).
Fenwick said that Dr. Randall and Dr. Tremblay are the fifteenth and sixteenth professors to receive this designation in ÌìÓ鴫ý’s 113-year history. Randall will be receiving his award at Spring Convocation on Tuesday, May 16, and Tremblay will be receiving his at a later date.
Dr. William L. (Bill) Randall, AB (Harvard), MDiv, EdD (Toronto), ThM (Princeton Theological Seminary), joined the Department of Gerontology in 1995. Over 27 years, he taught courses on aging as it related to development, health, learning, and creativity. He designed the course Narrative Gerontology, offering it annually from 1995 to 2021, and has been a world leader in developing a narrative perspective on human development in later life. ​He has authored, co-authored, or co-edited 10 books, from The Stories We Are: An Essay in Self-Creation (1995) to the forthcoming Things That Matter: Special Objects in Our Stories as We Age. In addition, he has authored 24 book chapters and 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals in gerontology, social work, education, psychology, and theology.
He served as founding Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Narrative at ÌìÓ鴫ý which has attracted high-profile researchers and writers to deliver the annual “John McKendy Memorial Lecture in Narrative.” As well as co-organizing Narrative Matters conferences, he co-edited the journal Narrative Works. He has been involved in numerous research projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, SSHRC-Canada Research Chairs, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the NB Innovation Fund. He was a member of the board of The Third Age Centre, project director of the Fredericton 80+ Study, and served on the boards of York Care Centre, Hospice Fredericton, and the Atlantic Institute on Aging. He has given keynote speeches, presentations, and workshops throughout North America and Europe for researchers, practitioners, and public audiences. In the Lent term of 2024, he will be a Visiting Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Dr. M. Anthony (Tony) Tremblay, BA (St. FX), MA (Victoria), PhD (UNB), joined the Department of English Language and Literature in 1996. Over 26 years, his scholarly work has promoted and shaped the study of New Brunswick’s literatures and literary cultures regionally and nationally. He was Canada Research Chair in New Brunswick Studies from 2007 to 2017, and was the founding editor of the New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia, the Journal of New Brunswick Studies/Revue d’études sur Nouveau-Brunswick, and the New Brunswick Literature Curriculum. With fifteen major works, he has published widely in the fields of literary modernism and Canadian literature, including David Adams Richards of the Miramichi (2010), Fred Cogswell: The Many-Dimensioned Self (2012), New Brunswick at the Crossroads: Literary Ferment and Social Change in the East (2017), and The Fiddlehead Moment: Pioneering an Alternative Canadian Modernism in New Brunswick (2019). He also served on advisory boards or as consulting editor for ten other publications.
He developed thirteen courses on Maritime literature, Canadian poetry, and New Brunswick literature, film and art, and was nominated for teaching awards multiple times. His scholarship has earned over thirty nominations, awards, and grants, including a nomination for the Gabrielle Roy Prize for the Best Book in Canadian Criticism, a short-list for a Canada Prize in the Humanities, and a Merit Award for Research at ÌìÓ鴫ý. He has published hundreds of book chapters, articles, essays, interviews, and reviews, and he has been an invited speaker at many conferences. He wrote, directed, and co-produced the documentary film Last Shift: The Story of a Mill Town (2011) about the closing of the paper mill in his hometown of Dalhousie, NB.