Alan Shepard
Professor
President & Vice-Chancellor, Western University
PhD, University of Virginia
BA, St. Olaf College, Phi Beta Kappa
Cambridge University, Visiting Student
Stevenson Hall 2107
519-661-3104
Research
My research focuses on the relationships among spectacle, national security, history, and rhetoric in early modern Europe; on the emergence of a culture of scientific discourse in the early modern world of belles-lettres; and on the challenges facing universities today.
I have published Marlowe’s Soldiers: Rhetorics of Masculinity in the Age of the Armada; Fantasies of Troy: Classical Tales and the Social Imaginary in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited with Stephen Powell; and Coming to Class: Pedagogy and the Social Class of Teachers, edited with Gary Tate and John McMillan, the latter of which has been widely taught at American universities.
My essays have appeared in Renaissance Quarterly, the Journal of English Studies, the Scottish Literary Journal, Modern Drama, and others. For five years, I served as the editor of Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme, a bilingual Canadian academic journal.
As a university leader I have released many podcasts, videos, and opinion/editorial columns, and have been interviewed by Canadian and international media outlets.
As a first-generation student, I am committed to an inclusive model of education and a multidisciplinary approach to research focused on the public good and solving global challenges.
I’ve held fellowships in the humanities at the Folger Library and the University of Toronto. I’m president emeritus of Montreal’s Concordia University and past provost at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University). I’m currently a member of the governing Council of The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). My past public service includes the Council of Ontario Universities where I was chair from 2022-2024, and the Canada Research Knowledge Network, where I was chair from 2016-2019.
I serve or have served on a number of not-for-profit boards, including The Stratford Festival, the Montreal Chambre de Commerce, and the Board of the Greater London International Airport Authority.
