Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics. Sheila Embleton pursues an internationally recognized research agenda in multiple fields of linguistics but is also well known for contributions to the study of post-secondary education. In January , Dr. A native speaker of English, she has excellent command of French and German, good command of Russian, moderate command of Spanish, Finnish, and Swedish, and basic command of Italian. In linguistics, Dr.
She is best known for applications of mathematical and statistical methods to linguistic problems broadly, with early work mostly in methods of tree reconstruction for families of related languages. Among Dr. Her current linguistics research, which has been supported by a series of grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada SSHRC , focuses predominantly on dialectometry statistical methods applied to dialect study , with particular application to British, Finnish, and Romanian dialects.
Over the past several decades, Dr. During her vice-presidency at York, Dr. She is interested in many policy and practical issues related to contemporary post-secondary education, both in Canada and internationally, especially in the European Union and India, research that has also been supported by SSHRC. She is equally a tireless advocate both for the internationalization of education and for access to higher education, based on merit rather than social, financial, or geographical factors.
As a specialist of post-secondary education, she has pursued two commissioned reports for CBIE, and also studied such specific topics as: the significance of scholarships in attracting international students to Canada; post-secondary collaborations between Canada and India; national and international policy in higher education; comparison of the objectives of international students versus those of the Canadian post-secondary institutions trying to attract them; and comparison of the internationalization of Chinese and Indian higher education.
As part of her commitment to the internationalization of post-secondary education, Dr. In , the university recognized her with its Award for Outstanding Contribution to Internationalization. In addition, Dr. In general, Dr. Embleton has been involved in many aspects of academic relations between Canada and India, including visiting dozens of Indian universities, institutes, and government ministries. She frequently lectures, writes for the media, and leads panels on the rapidly evolving higher education scene in India.
