Anton Allahar
Photo Credit: Eric Simard
Content Credit: Department of Sociology, Western University
News Article: Western University – Department of Sociology – Life Time Achievement for Allahar
Anton Allahar was born in Trinidad, West Indies, and completed his PhD in Political & Economic Sociology at the University of Toronto. He is currently a Full Professor of Sociology at The University of Western Ontario (Canada). Professor Allahar’s principal areas of interest are economic development, the politics of globalization & democracy, and ethnic and racial relations, as these apply to the Caribbean and Latin America. His books include: The Sugar Planters of Colonial Cuba. Toronto: Two-Thirds Editions (1982); Class, Politics and Sugar in Colonial Cuba. New York: Mellen (1990); Is there Life after Debt? The Latin American Debt Crisis. Montreal: IOHE (1993); Sociology and the Periphery: Theories and Issues. Toronto: Garamond (1995); Generation on Hold: Coming of Age in the Late 20th Century. New York: New York University Press (1996); Richer and Poorer: the Structure of Inequality in Canada. Toronto: Lorimer (1998); Critical Youth Studies: a Canadian Focus, Toronto: Pearson-Prentice Hall (2006), Ivory Tower Blues: a university system in crisis, Toronto: University of Toronto Press (2007), La Tour de Papier: L’université mais à quel prix? Montréal: Les Édicions Logiques, (2010), and Lowering Higher Education: the rise of the corporate university and the decline of liberal education. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (2011). Anton has also edited Caribbean Charisma. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers (2001), Diasporas and Transnational Identities, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum (2001), Diasporic Identity: Myth Culture and the Politics of Home, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum(2002), and Ethnicity, Class and Nationalism: Caribbean and Extra-Caribbean Dimensions. New York: Lexington Books (2005). In addition Professor Allahar has written over 70 refereed articles and book chapters on related themes and has won 6 major awards for excellence in teaching, including the USC/Bank of Nova Scotia award in 1996 and again in 2002. He is the only person ever to have won this award twice. Before this Anton was honoured with the UWO’s Gold Medal and Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1986 and more recently he won 3 major awards for excellence in university teaching: the province-wide OCUFA in 2004 and the national 3M award in 2005. In June 2007 Professor Allahar won the inaugural Leadership in Faculty Teaching award (LIFT) sponsored by the Government of Ontario. Professor Allahar has delivered over 80 papers at international conferences and has been invited to lecture at some 20 different universities internationally. In addition in 1997 Professor Allahar was appointed as external adviser to the University of the South Pacific (Fiji), and each Summer since 2002 he has been invited to design and teach a course entitled “Ethnicity and Nationalism in the New World Order,” at St. Petersburg State University (formerly University of Leningrad) in Russia. In 2004 Dr. Allahar was made a “Special Honorary Research Professor” (Invesitgador Honorífico Especial) at La Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, and in 2007 “Special Invited Professor” (Categoría Docente Especial de Profesor Invitado), at La Universidad de la Habana, and in 2011 he received Reconocimiento de Destacado Colaborador (Outstanding Researcher Recognition) from the Centro de Estudios Cuba-Caribe, La Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. Anton is also a “Fellow” of the Centre for Caribbean Thought at the University of the West Indies (Jamaica), and has held appointments as Visiting Professor at the University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica) 2004, and at the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill, Barbados) in 2011. Based on his combined scholarly publications and awards of excellence in teaching, also in July 2007, Dr. Allahar was named Faculty Scholar at The University of Western Ontario. In 2007-08 Dr. Allahar also served as President of the prestigious Caribbean Studies Association, whose membership is drawn from over 200 universities and 60 countries internationally. In this capacity he was invited to accompany Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a trip to the Caribbean (July 2007) where the PM met with a group of Caribbean prime ministers.