Sheila Embleton
# Sheila Embleton

Sheila Margaret Embleton FRSC (born 1954) is a Canadian and British linguist. She is a Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics at York University. Embleton is a Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland.

## Career

Embleton joined the faculty at York University 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 Order of the White Rose of Finland. 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. 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.

## 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)
