W. Andy Knight

Distinguished Professor, International Relations, University of Alberta
W. Andy Knight is Provost Fellow, Black Excellence and Leadership at the University of Alberta and former Chair of its Department of Political Science. Knight has served as Director of the Institute of International Relations (IIR), The University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad & Tobago where he co-founded and directed the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC). He is past co-Editor-in-Chief of the African Security Journal and International Journal, both globally prestigious peer-reviewed publications, and founded the Caribbean Journal of International Relations and Diplomacy in 2013 during his secondment in the Caribbean. Professor Knight was co-editor of another highly regarded and award-winning journal — Global Governance -- from 2000 to 2005. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC), he was named by Venture Magazine among Alberta’s top 50 most influential people and, by the Black Business and Professional Association of Canada, the Harry Jerome Trailblazer. He served as an Advisory Board Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Welfare of Children and directed the Peace and Post Conflict Studies Certificate Programme in the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies (OIS) at the University of Alberta. In March 2007, Dr. Knight was appointed by the Canadian Foreign Minister to the Board of Governors of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and served in that position until 2011. He was appointed Distinguished Professor at the University of Alberta in 2021 and was awarded the 2021-22 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in International and Area Studies at Yale University. In March 2023, Professor Knight was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for his valuable contributions to the province of Alberta and McMaster University bestowed on him an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) honoris causa.