Three Generations of Arts & Science Directors Connect

The summer months on campus at McMaster can seem quieter than the Fall-Winter term, with many students off working and engaging in other summer activities. But the activity that goes on behind the scenes during this time is substantive and important. Among other things, it is a time when Arts & Science staff and instructors prepare for the next academic year.

The summer also provided another welcome opportunity for Dr. Beth Marquis, current Arts & Science Program Director, to catch up with Dr. Jean Wilson and Dr. Gary Warner as we celebrated the recent addition of Dr. Wilson’s portrait to the wall recognizing the program’s previous Directors: Dr. Herb Jenkins, Dr. Barbara Ferrier, Dr. Peter Sutherland, and Drs. Warner and Wilson themselves. While this collection of portraits honours the history of Arts & Science, the contributions and impacts of these remarkable educators and leaders are far from being a thing of the past.

“Each of the former Directors of Arts & Science has played such a vital role in growing and nurturing its wonderful, supportively challenging, and engaged community of learning,” says Dr. Marquis. “Their contributions continue to be felt and to shape the program every day.”

Arts & Science was established in 1981 with the goal of providing students with a broad-based, interdisciplinary education in the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. Its pioneering approach to education has been seen as setting the stage for much of the interdisciplinary learning offered here at McMaster University and across Canada.

As two of the most recent Directors of Arts & Science, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Warner have played an enormous part in its success, and have also continued to be deeply involved with the program after their Directorial terms came to an end.

The renowned scholar, esteemed professor, and human rights champion, Dr. Gary Warner, inspires Arts & Science students and everyone around him to make the world a better place. Dr. Warner’s work in academia, international development, and as a community leader in Hamilton is nothing short of extraordinary. During his long and impactful tenure at McMaster, Dr. Warner was the Arts & Science Program Director from 2000-2005 and later for two 1-year terms from 2010-2011 and 2017-2018. He also taught several ARTSSCI courses, including the Level I Inquiry course and ARTSSCI 3GJ3 / Global Justice Inquiry. When asked to look back on his time at McMaster, Dr. Warner shared:

A highlight of my McMaster career over five decades was my experience as an Arts & Science instructor and Director. I have always been impressed by the degree to which Arts & Science students are typically imbued with a strong sense of idealism and a desire to make positive change. I see this culture of a “community of interdisciplinary learning and ethical public engagement” alive in the strong commitment to community service, in the sense of shared community, in the readiness to ask questions that are not bound by disciplinary borders, in the willingness to be self-critical and engage in discovery of self and the human experience. I see it in the lives of Artsci alumni engaged in a wide variety of careers and life choices. I treasure my memories of the Arts & Science community.

Now retired, Dr. Warner remains extensively involved in the McMaster community through the Black Student Success Centre (BSSC), the African-Caribbean Faculty Association of McMaster University (ACFAM) – of which he was a founding member in 2010, and the Arts & Science Program. His broader community engagements include currently serving as board chair of Good Shepherd Centres and the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton, and as a member of the 3-person Safe Schools Bullying Review Panel.

Longtime beloved instructor and Director of the Arts & Science Program (2010-22), Dr. Jean Wilson (a 1977 McMaster alumna), retired in 2023, but continues to teach in the Program and remains closely connected to students and alumni in the Artsci community. Like Dr. Warner, Dr. Wilson noted the significant place the Arts & Science program has held in her career:

In my 35 years as a McMaster faculty member, other than three years as a Canada Research Fellow (1989-92), I have taught in the Arts & Science Program: ARTSSCI 3A06 / Literature (1992-2022, an anchoring course that continues to inform my research and even my daily life); ARTSSCI 4MN2 / Movement & Integration (a co-taught, experiential learning initiative involving international students); and now, post-retirement, a new seminar, ARTSSCI 4LI3 / Literature Inquiry. It has also been a great pleasure to supervise many wonderful ARTSSCI theses and independent studies. My time as Director afforded the exceptional opportunity to work with a wide range of creative, caring, energetic people across McMaster (and beyond), on initiatives such as the Discovery Program, the introduction of interdisciplinary experiential learning courses, and extensive curricular renewal, including new combined honours programs and upper-level inquiry seminars. Throughout my experience in Arts & Science, the example of colleagues such as Gary and Beth has been decisive, as has their unfailing support, wise counsel, and generosity.

Dr. Wilson has made countless important contributions to Arts & Science throughout the course of her 30+ years teaching in the program and her 12-year tenure as Program Director. But one contribution that can’t be overstated is the indelible impact she has had on the many students she has supported and inspired. Dr. Wilson is a skilled educator, scholar, mentor, and community builder with a unique capacity to engage others and help them realize their potential. The care and wisdom she brings to her work with students can be seen in her reflections on the various iterations of the Artsci Literature course she has taught (and continues to teach):

While I certainly have been responsible for teaching “Lit” (as both ARTSSCI 3A06 and ARTSSCI 4LI3 are known), it feels more the case that I have been perennially “taking” the course, so fresh are our literary studies every year. What each student brings to the course is remarkable, as are the ways in which individual engagement with the readings and in discussions inside and outside the classroom works in concert with the development of often quite original collective insights and new, personally and/or socially significant understandings. Learning with and from such fantastic students in Lit has meant more than I can say. It informs how I move in the world. 

For her part, Dr. Marquis emphasized how significant Dr. Warner’s and Dr. Wilson’s contributions to the program continue to be. “I can’t say enough about how lucky I feel to be able to continue working with Gary and Jean, or about how grateful I am for all of the ways in which they have shaped, supported, stretched, and inspired me and so many others in the Artsci community,” she shared. “Their ongoing commitment to the program is a testament both to their own dedication and leadership and to the strength of the community they’ve done so much to help foster.”