Newman recognized by Royal Society of Canada
Professor Dwight Newman has received one of Canada's highest academic honours.
By Matt Olson, Research Profile and ImpactDr. Dwight Newman (DPhil) has spent decades exploring and understanding how the law connects with Canadians.
“The law really helps structure peoples’ lives, determines a lot about what they can do in their lives and the frameworks within which they operate,” he said. “It really matters to people. It’s not just an abstraction, but something that matters to people.”
A professor in USask’s College of Law and a Canada Research Chair in Rights, Communities, and Constitutional Law, Newman’s influential work has had major impacts on constitutional law, Indigenous rights law, and legal and political theory on rights.
This work has resulted in him being named a Royal Society of Canada (RSC) Fellow, one of Canada's highest academic honours, recognizing his invaluable contributions to his field. The RSC is considered the most prestigious collection of Canadian scholars, artists and researchers across a vast interdisciplinary field. It fosters intellectual leadership for Canada and for the world.
Newman said growing up with a brother with an intellectual disability got him interested in the law even as a child. Through his brother, Newman said he saw from an early age how the law and human rights could have a direct impact on a person’s life.
“It was always a thought in my mind that I might go into something like law. It’s a profession where those involved can help people in a lot of different ways,” Newman said. “I didn’t envision going into academia until much later ... and I ended up realizing that was a context where I could really contribute at a broader level to the development of the law.”
Newman grew up in Regina and began his post-secondary education at the University of Regina before studying law at USask. He then attained a clerkship at the Supreme Court of Canada, where he gained great insight into the workings of Canada’s top court.
As a researcher, Newman spent 10 years as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Rights in Constitutional and International Law before becoming a Tier 1 chair in Rights, Communities, and Constitutional Law. His future research will continue to explore the legal rights of communities in Canada as well as the individual, and how freedoms in the Canadian constitution impact people in today’s context.
“(My work) has a significance to questions about who we are as Canadians, questions about how we live together across complex differences, questions just about how we live up to responsibilities to one another,” he said. “I think in that way it matters to all Canadians how we engage with these questions.”
Being named an RSC Fellow is the highest honour that can be awarded in recognition of outstanding scholarly achievement. Newman was one of four USask researchers who received the honour.
“USask has a proud history of attracting top-tier researchers and scholars from around the globe. These four inductees have made exceptional contributions in their fields and are a reflection of USask’s commitment to driving innovative research that is shaping our world," USask President Peter Stoicheff said.
In 2016, Newman was named a member of the RSC's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. This membership is presented to exceptional mid-career researchers whose significant contributions and accomplishments are recognized by their peers and other leading researchers.