The pair -- Rob Bowman and Paul Delaney (right) -- were nominated by students and then selected by a panel of judges in a process conducted by the producers of the TVO program “Big Ideas.”

As part of the top 10, they will both give televised lectures, which will air on the program beginning Saturday October 8, 2005. Viewers will have the chance to vote for their favourite online or by phone following each broadcast. The winner will be announced on Saturday November 12, 2005. The York faculty members were selected from a group of more than 350 nominees.

Last fall, "Big Ideas" gave Ontario students a unique opportunity to acknowledge professors whose lectures resonated with the class. Judges, including columnist Robert Fulford, playwright Andrew Moodie, and Literary Review of Canada editor Bronwyn Drainie, looked for lecturers who could explain their thesis clearly, were passionate about their topic, and conveyed their views with confidence and flair.

Among those nominated for the top 30 cut were John Dwyer and Dalton Kehoe, both professors in York’s Division of Social Science.

Bowman recently received accolades from York for his contributions to York’s Faculty of Fine Arts and his role in The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico, which receives its Canadian premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 9.

The winning lecturer’s university or college will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship, provided by event sponsor TD Meloche Monnex.

As profiled on TVO’s website, York’s top-10 nominated lecturers are:

Rob Bowman

Associate professor of ethnomusicology in the Department of Music of York’s Faculty of Fine Arts, Bowman pioneered popular music studies at York. He lectures, publishes and broadcasts in many areas of popular music, from country, R&B and gospel to reggae, rap and funk and also teaches in the Division of Social Science. He has written liner notes for dozens of recordings and regularly authors, produces and advises on major documentary and CD reissue projects for record companies in Europe and North America. His many broadcast credits include a five-part radio series on the history of Canadian popular music and frequent guest spots on CBC Radio's Definitely Not the Opera.

Bowman currently serves as director of York's Graduate Program in Ethnomusicology & Musicology.

Paul Delaney

Paul Delaney was born in South Australia and received his bachelor’s degree in science (experimental physics) at the Australian National University in Canberra. He then proceeded to complete graduate studies at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, specializing in observational astronomy. Since that time, he has worked as a nuclear physicist for Atomic Energy of Canada, a support astronomer at McGraw Hill Observatory near Tucson, Arizona and from 1986, as a faculty member in the Department of Physics & Astronomy in York's Faculty of Science & Engineering. Currently, apart from his lecturing duties, he is the campus observatory coordinator, director of the Division of Natural Science, and Master of Bethune College.

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city.  The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 180,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 21 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries.  This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation. 

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For more information, contact:
Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100 x22097/mehughes@yorku.ca