John English

Who is John English?

John Richard English, CM, FRSC is a Canadian academic who has also been very active in Canadian public life.

A native of Plattsville, Ontario, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967 from the University of Waterloo. He completed his A.M. degree in 1968 and PhD in 1973 at Harvard University. He joined the University of Waterloo as a lecturer in history in 1972, becoming an Assistant Professor in 1974, an Associate Professor in 1978, and a Professor in 1984. He received a D.Litt from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1990.

He served as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Kitchener between 1993 and 1997. Subsequently, he served as a Special Ambassador for Landmines and as a Special Envoy for the election of Canada to the United Nations Security Council. He has also served as President of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, co-editor of the Canadian Historical Review, chair of the Board of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum, and was the Executive Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Canada's largest think tank devoted exclusively to the study of international affairs. He is currently the General Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography at the University of Toronto where he is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs. He was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Canadian Forces College in 2010-11 and is now a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo.