Professor
BA (Hons),
University of New Brunswick MA, PhD,
University of Minnesota
Michael MacMillan was born in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia and grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He joined the Department in 1978, and is serving as Department Chair for the third time. He also is Co-ordinator of the Public Policy Studies Program.
He has published a number of articles on issues regarding language rights and language policy, culminating in his book,
The Practice of Language Rights in Canada, published in 1998 by the University
of Toronto Press. This book was short-listed for the prestigious Donner Prize, for the best book in public policy published in that year. His other publications include “Social versus Political Rights: A Distinction without a Difference?” in the Canadian Journal of Political Science in 1986, “Federal Language Policy in Canada and the Quebec Challenge”, a chapter in the book, Linguistic Conflict and Language Laws: Understanding the Quebec Question, Pierre Larrivee, editor, published by Palgrave Macmillan (U.K.) in 2002. More recently, he has examined the comparative policy treatment of language issues in Canada and the United States, especially in the courts, culminating in the co-authored article “Judicial Activism or Restraint?: The Role of the Highest Courts in Language Policy in Canada and the United States” in the American Review of Canadian Studies in 2003. He has presented numerous papers at regional, national and international conferences on a range of topics including human rights, Quebec nationalism, and democracy and democratic theory.
His current research explores issues in democratic theory and practice, specifically techniques of auditing democracy in organizations of civil society.
The following is a link to the presentation of Dr. MacMillan's recent research on the citizen consultation on heritage planning in Nova Scotia. Please
click here to view the presentation.