Sheila Margaret Embleton (born 1954) is a Canadian and British linguist. She is a Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

. Embleton is a Knight First Class of the

Order of the White Rose of Finland The Order of the White Rose of Finland (; ) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, and the Order of the Lion of Finland. The President of Finland is the Grand Master of all three orders. The ...

Career

Embleton joined the faculty at

in 1980. She served various academic roles such as Undergraduate Program Director, Graduate Program Director, Associate Dean, and Vice-President Academic and Provost. As an Associate Dean, Embleton was awarded a Knight First Class of the

. She also served as president of the Canadian Friends of Finland Education Foundation, where she led a campaign to create a Chair in Finnish Studies at the University of Toronto. While in her role as vice-president academic and Provost, she helped create York's first-ever India strategy and eventually served as president of the

Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute is a binational non-profit organization with registered charity status in Canada. The institute supports the creation of binational links between academia, government, the business community and civil society or ...

. Embleton also Chaired the Ontario Council of Academic Vice-Presidents and sat on the Board of the Ontario Universities Application Centre. In 2010, Embleton was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

. From January 2023 through March 2024 Embleton served as interim president of

Laurentian University Laurentian University (), officially Laurentian University of Sudbury, is a mid-sized Bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, incorporated on March 28, 1960. Laurentian offers a variety of undergr ...

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...

, Ontario, in the aftermath of the institution's financial crisis. Embbleton subsequently seerved as interim president of

Algoma University Algoma University, commonly shortened to Algoma U, is a Canadian public university in the province of Ontario, with campuses in Brampton, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie, and Timmins. Algoma U offers bachelor's degrees, master's degre ...

, effective 1 July 2025.

Personal life

Embleton married Wolfgang Ahrens in 1981, but chose to keep her last name. When their daughter was born in 1989, she took Embleton's name.

Selected publications

*''Statistics in historical linguistics'' (1986) *''Names and Their Substitutes: Onomastic Observations on Astérix and Its Translations'' (1991) *''Lexicostatistics/glottochronology: from Swadesh to Sankoff to Starostin to future horizons'' (2000)

References

External links

CV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Embleton, Sheila 1954 births Linguists from Canada British women linguists Canadian women academics Women linguists University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of York University Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Living people Academics from Ottawa