Western applies for court approval to remove name of professor from scholarships

Western University has received court approval to remove the name of Kenneth Hilborn from six academic prizes that were created with funds from Hilborn’s estate. Hilborn was an emeritus history professor at the university and has been criticized for espousing racist, radical views. In 2019, scholars began calling on the university to intervene with the scholarships given the views expressed in Hilborn’s academic work. Western’s history department originally decided that the awards would stay, but struck a research group to consider the criticism levelled at Hilborn. The group reportedly found that Hilborn’s work was harmful and noted that maintaining the awards would “be seen as tacitly condoning and endorsing his views.” The university has applied to the provincial court to remove Hilborn’s name from the awards. CBC Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.