TORONTO, June 18, 2008 -- Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga,who returned to her native Latvia after 45 years in Canada and, soon after, became the republic’s first female president, will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from York University on Wednesday, June 18, 2008.
Elected as the sixth President of the Republic of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected in 2003, Vīķe-Freiberga served as head of state until July, 2007.
“Dr. Vīķe-Freiberga demonstrated her commitment to community service during her decades in Canada, and after a distinguished career as an academic, returned to Latvia with that sense of commitment,” said York University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. “Her contribution to democracy and human rights, in Latvia and the world, is a remarkable example of the social justice and equity values that York holds dear.”
Vīķe-Freiberga fled to Germany with her parents in January, 1945, to escape the Soviet occupation of Latvia and later attended the University of Toronto and McGill University. From 1965 to 1998, she was a professor in the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal, where her research focused on memory processes and language, and the influence of drugs on cognitive processes.
Since 1957, she has been actively engaged in community service, focusing on questions of Latvian identity and culture, and the political future of the Baltic States, and has published research on Latvian folksongs.
Vīķe-Freiberga was appointed by the Latvian Prime Minister in 1998 as director of the newly-founded Latvian Institute. She became president of Latvia the next year, and played a leading role in achieving Latvia’s membership in NATO and the European Union. As president, she emphasized the importance of democratic institutions and human rights, including gender equality, and pressed for legislation which led to the creation of an ombudsman in Latvia. She also called for the reform of the judicial system, and triggered a broad public debate on the postwar history of Europe, elucidating Latvia’s perspective.
Vīķe-Freiberga will receive her honorary doctor of laws degree at 4:30 p.m. during the second of two convocations for the Faculty of Health.
Convocation ceremonies are held on York's Keele Campus, 4700 Keele Street, in the convocation pavilion located between Osgoode Hall Law School and the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies. Campus maps are available here.
For a complete listing of the ceremony schedule, click here. York University’s spring convocation ceremonies will be streamed live over the Internet.
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 190,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 24 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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Media Relations, York University, 416 736 5585 / media@yorku.ca
