News Release

Carleton Names New Dean of Graduate Studies and Research

October 31 , 2006

(Ottawa)--President David Atkinson is pleased to announce the appointment of John Shepherd as the new Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research for a six year term effective January 1, 2007.  Dr. Shepherd is currently the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and Chancellor’s Professor of Music and Sociology. He will replace the current Dean, Roger Blockley, who has held the position since 1997.

“The range and quality of our graduate programs has grown significantly in recent years,” says Dr. Shepherd. “With our national capital advantage, I look forward to extending that range and establishing for Carleton a deserved reputation as one of Canada’s premier graduate universities.”

Dr. Shepherd’s history with Carleton spans more than 35 years. He is an alumnus (BA/70) and was the first student to graduate from Carleton’s Bachelor of Music program in 1972, going on to the Department of Music at the University of York (UK) on a Commonwealth Scholarship to work on his doctorate in the sociology of music which he obtained in 1977. After spending five years at Trent University as Assistant Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies, he returned to Carleton as Associate Professor of Music in 1984. He was promoted to the rank of Professor and cross-appointed to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in 1987. Since that time, Dr. Shepherd has held a number of groundbreaking positions at Carleton University including founding Director of the School for Studies in Art and Culture, Chair of the Transition Team that resulted in the establishment of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Associate Deanships in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Graduate Studies and Research.

Dr. Shepherd’s research areas include the sociology and aesthetics of music, popular music studies, and cultural theory. He holds an Associateship of the Royal College of Music in the flute and, in 2000, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of his role as ‘a leading architect of a post-War critical musicology.’

-30-

For more information:
Lin Moody

Media Relations

Carleton University

613-520-2600 ext. 8705