title: Lewis Collins

text: Lewis Collins (27 May 1946 – 27 November 2013) was an English actor, best known for his career-defining role playing 'Bodie' in the late 1970s – early 1980s British television series "The Professionals".


title: Lewis Collins

text: Collins was born in Bidston, Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire, now Merseyside. At the age of two he won 'The Most Beautiful Baby in Liverpool' contest. He was educated at Gautby Road Primary School and Grange School in Birkenhead, and the Birkenhead Institute School.


title: Lewis Collins

text: When he was 13 years of age, his father Bill, a jazz dance band leader, bought him a drum kit. His first gig was playing with his father's band, and he also joined a group of older school pupils to form a band called "The Renegades" at the start of the Merseybeat music scene in Liverpool in the late 1950s. His passion for firearms started in his youth from a membership of the "Liverpool Central Rifle Club". On leaving school, he took an apprentice hairdresser's position at the Andre Bernard Salon, alongside fellow apprentice Mike McCartney (stage name Mike McGear – later a member of the comedy, music and poetry trio The Scaffold). In the same period Collins was writing songs with Mike McCartney, and when the drummer Pete Best was dropped from the Beatles, Mike McCartney suggested Collins as a possible replacement to his elder brother Paul McCartney. Turning down the option of an audition with The Beatles, Collins continued playing music on an amateur basis for a number of local bands, including "The Eyes", and "The Georgians".


title: Lewis Collins

text: In late 1964, Collins quit hairdressing to become the bass player with The Mojos (which his father managed), performing on their charting singles "Goodbye Dolly Gray" and "Until My Baby Comes Home", and moved from Liverpool to London with them when the band appeared to have good commercial prospects. However the band failed to chart again and broke up, and finding himself in the midst of cosmopolitan London in 1966 during the Swinging Sixties, Collins made a living engaged in temping work such as delivery van driving, cleaning windows and being a waiter, before deciding that he wanted to become an actor after hearing a play being performed on the radio.


title: Lewis Collins

text: Having been accepted for training in acting by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, which he attended between 1968 and 1971, he drew the notice of his fellow students for an "electrifying" performance in the lead role of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".


title: Lewis Collins

text: On graduation from LAMDA Collins joined the Chesterfield Civic Theatre's Repertory Company in 1971, moving to the company of the Citizen’s Theatre, in Glasgow in 1972 under the director Giles Havergal. While in Glasgow he also taught deaf and mute children mobility skills, learning British sign language so he could communicate with them, later saying that this was the most satisfying work that he had done in his life. In 1972, he appeared in seven plays in Glasgow including the lead in Marlowe's "Tamburlaine the Great". He then went with Havergal on an acting teaching tour with the Prospect Theatre Company in the United States and Canada, before returning to the British Isles to appear in London's West End, starring in "City Sugar" and "The Threepenny Opera", and at the Royal Court Theatre in the play "The Farm" in 1973, directed by Lindsay Anderson.


title: Lewis Collins

text: After moving into film acting in the mid-1970s, he intermittently returned to the stage throughout his career. He performed in a pantomime of "Babes in the Wood" at the King's Theatre in Southsea in Christmas 1983. In the mid-1990s he performed in an English provincial tour of the play "Who killed Agatha Christie" by Tudor Gates. His last performance in theatre was a 1999–2000 provincial tour in the English Midlands of J.B. Priestley's "Dangerous Corner".


title: Lewis Collins

text: While appearing in "The Farm" at the Royal Court in 1973 Collins received an offer for his first television role in the British Broadcasting Corporation's police drama "Z Cars". His first major television role was in Granada Television's comedy series "The Cuckoo Waltz" from 1975 to 1977 in the role of Gavin Rumsey, alongside his landlord played by David Roper and landlady Diane Keen, whom his character was constantly trying to seduce. By the mid-1970s he was regularly appearing on British television dramas in multiple roles.


title: Lewis Collins

text: In 1976, the dramatist and television producer Brian Clemens wrote a new British television crime-action drama series entitled "The Professionals", modelled on the success of the hit American television series "Starsky and Hutch". It was also intended to be a more realistic follow-up to a prior successful television series that he had just produced about government agents entitled "The New Avengers".


title: Lewis Collins

text: As with the previous series, Clemens planned to have a split leads casting arrangement for the new show. Having cast the actor Martin Shaw, Clemens found in the first week of filming that the initial partnership he had arranged for the recording of the pilot episode with the actor Anthony Andrews lacked personal on-screen chemistry due to the similarity of the acting styles of Andrews and Shaw. He thought of Collins as an alternative after seeing a recently filmed episode of "The New Avengers", in which Collins and Shaw (both trained at LAMDA) had appeared alongside one another and there had been a noticeable dynamic tension between them, both in their acting style and off-screen private personalities. After a screen test of Collins, he replaced Anthony Andrews as 'William Bodie'. Although not getting on particularly well with one another personally, the good-humoured antagonism and bravado between Collins and Shaw on-screen worked well and the series was highly successful on British television for the next six years, making household names of them both. The production came to an end in 1981, although new episodes continued to be shown onscreen until early 1983.


title: Lewis Collins

text: Collins was a private in the 10th Battalion Parachute Regiment of the British Army (a Territorial Army unit) from 1979 to 1983. In 1983, he applied to join the Territorial SAS, but was rejected because of his celebrity status, despite passing the entrance tests. From 15 to 23 March 1980 Collins with several volunteers from the Parachute Regiment, along with the British boxer John Conteh, took part in a forced march in military service conditions from London to Liverpool up the A41 road, the funds raised from the event being donated to a charity for disabled children.


title: Lewis Collins

text: In the 1980s, he auditioned for the role of "007" with Eon Productions, the producers of the "James Bond" cinema franchise, to succeed Roger Moore, but the audition with its producer Cubby Broccoli did not go well and he was rejected as being "too aggressive". Collins regarded this failure in retrospect as the key missed opportunity of his acting career. In 1982 he moved into cinema starring in the role of a British Army officer confronting terrorists in the film "Who Dares Wins".


title: Lewis Collins

text: As the 1980s progressed Collins attempted to maintain a cinematic career. An initial plan to continue to make feature films with the "Who Dares Wins" producer Euan Lloyd, including one set in the Falklands War provisionally entitled "Task Force South", came to nothing, so he instead signed a German-Italian co-production contract to star in three mercenary war genre feature films directed by Antonio Margheriti set in the Third World, viz., "" (1984), "Kommando Leopard" (1985) and "Der Commander" (1988), which attempted to capitalise on the recent box-office hits of "The Wild Geese" and "The Dogs of War". They were commercially unsuccessful; as a result he returned to working in British television productions.


title: Lewis Collins

text: In 1986 he played the French medieval war-lord Philip Marc in the series "Robin of Sherwood". In 1988 he played second lead to Michael Caine in the British television film "Jack the Ripper".


title: Lewis Collins

text: At the start of the 1990s, he appeared in the role of "Colonel Mustard" in the British television drama/gameshow "Cluedo" (1991–92), however acting roles became sparser as the decade progressed. In the early 1990s, seeking to extend his career options in drama to work beyond acting he attended courses in screenwriting and direction at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in Los Angeles, California, US, but this led to no subsequent professional employment. In the mid-1990s he moved his family to Los Angeles, where he was residing part-time, while he returned to England intermittently for the occasional provincial theatre tour and minor acting roles in television productions.


title: Lewis Collins

text: In March 1997, Collins announced in an interview on British television that he was in discussions with a production company to star in a new series based on "The Professionals", reprising his career signature role of "William Bodie" as the CI5 Agency's Chief in the part played by Gordon Jackson in the original series. However, after months of negotiations it was announced by the producer David Wickes that Collins had been dropped as a casting option for the role for undisclosed reasons, and it had been given to the actor Edward Woodward instead. The new show, entitled "", went on to be a commercial and critical failure, and only ran for one series.


title: Lewis Collins

text: Collins' final acting performance was in an episode of the British television police drama series"The Bill" entitled "034" in 2002.


title: Lewis Collins

text: In 2003, Collins left Britain and abandoned acting and drama, and saw out his last decade in private business in the United States, selling computer equipment.


title: Lewis Collins

text: In early 2012, his return to acting was announced by his theatrical agent issuing a statement that he had been cast to play the role of the Earl Godwin in the historically based feature film production "1066", but in June 2013, it was announced by the same source that he had withdrawn from the production due to ill health.


title: Lewis Collins

text: After being first diagnosed in 2008, Collins died at the age of 67 from cancer, in Los Angeles on 27 November 2013. Shortly before his death, he had returned to visit the United Kingdom, spending some time in Merseyside.


title: Lewis Collins

text: Collins' body was cremated. An urn holding his ashes is deposited in a memorial display cabinet at the North Pacifica Mausoleum section of Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.


title: Lewis Collins

text: Collins married Michelle Larrett, a school-teacher, in 1992. The couple had three sons; Oliver, Elliot and Cameron.


title: Lewis Collins

text: He held a private pilot's licence, a black belt in jujitsu and had trained in karate. His hobbies included parachuting, motorbikes, collecting firearms and sports shooting and he continued to play musical instruments throughout his life.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames River bisecting the campus's eastern portion. The university operates twelve academic faculties and schools. It is a member of the U15, a group of research-intensive universities in Canada.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university was founded on 7 March 1878 by Bishop Isaac Hellmuth of the Anglican Diocese of Huron as the Western University of London, Ontario. It incorporated Huron College, which had been founded in 1863. The first four faculties were Arts, Divinity, Law and Medicine. The university became non-denominational in 1908. Beginning in 1919, the university had affiliated with several denominational colleges. The university grew substantially in the post-World War II era, and a number of faculties and schools were added.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Western is a co-educational university, with more than 24,000 students, and over 306,000 living alumni worldwide. Notable alumni include government officials, academics, business leaders, Nobel Laureates, Rhodes Scholars, and distinguished fellows. Western's varsity teams, known as the Western Mustangs, compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of U Sports.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university was founded on 7 March 1878 by Bishop Isaac Hellmuth of the Anglican Diocese of Huron as The Western University of London, Ontario, and its first chancellor was Chief Justice Richard Martin Meredith. It incorporated Huron College, which had been founded in 1863. The first four faculties were Arts, Divinity, Law and Medicine (London Medical College). There were originally only 15 students when classes began in 1881.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Although the university was incorporated in 1878, it was not until 20 June 1881 that it received the right to confer degrees in arts, divinity and medicine. In 1882, the name of the university was revised to The Western University and College of London, Ontario. The first convocation of graduates was held on 27 April 1883. Initially affiliated with the Church of England, the university became non-denominational in 1908.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: In 1916, the university's current site was purchased from the Kingsmill family. There are two World War I memorial plaques in University College. The first lists the 19 students and graduates of the University of Western Ontario who died; the second honours the men from Middlesex County who died. A third plaque lists those who served with the No. 10 Canadian General hospital during WWII, the unit raised and equipped by UWO.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: In 1923, the university was renamed as The University of Western Ontario. The first two buildings constructed by architect John Moore and Co. at the new site were the Arts Building (now University College) and the Natural Science Building (now the Physics and Astronomy Building). Classes on the university's present site began in 1924. The University College tower, one of the university's most distinctive features, was named the Middlesex Memorial Tower in honour of the men from Middlesex County who fought in World War I.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: In the early 20th century, a number of institution became affiliated colleges of Western. In 1919, Brescia College was established as a Roman Catholic affiliate of Western, while Assumption College entered an affiliation agreement with the university. Other institutions that became affiliated colleges of Western includes the Waterloo College of Arts in 1925, St. Peter's College in 1939, and King's College in 1945. Waterloo College of Arts remained affiliated with Western until 1960, when the institution was reorganized into Wilfrid Laurier University; while Assumption College remained affiliated with Western until 1964, when it was reorganized into the University of Windsor. Brescia, Huron, and King's remain affiliated with Western.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Two World War II memorial honour rolls are hung on the Physics and Astronomy Building: the first lists the UWO students and graduates who served in the Second World War, and the second lists those who served with the No. 10 Canadian General hospital during WWII, the unit raised and equipped by UWO.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Although enrolment was relatively small for many years, the university began to grow after World War II. It added a number of faculties in the post-war period, such as the Faculty of Graduate Studies in 1947, the School of Business Administration (now the Ivey Business School) in 1949, the Faculty of Engineering Science (now the Faculty of Engineering) in 1957, the Faculty of Law in 1959, Althouse College (now the Faculty of Education) in 1963, and the Faculty of Music in 1968.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: In 2012, the university rebranded itself as "Western University" to give the school less of a regional or even national identity. "We want to be international," president Dr. Amit Chakma told "The Globe and Mail". The university's legal name, however, remains "The University of Western Ontario" and is used on transcripts and diplomas.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The University of Western Ontario is in the city of London, Ontario, in the southwestern end of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. Most of the campus is surrounded by residential neighbourhoods, with the Thames River bisecting the campus' eastern portion. Western Road is the university's major transportation artery, travelling north to south. The central campus, which includes most of the university's student residences and teaching facilities is approximately .


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Student residences make up the largest part of Western's building area, with approximately 31 percent of all building space allocated for residential use. Teaching and research facilities take up the second largest portion of building space, with approximately 28 percent of all building space allocated for that use. Most of these facilities are used for research, with 48 percent of all teaching and research facilities allocated for that purpose. Approximately 27 percent of all teaching and research facilities is made up of classrooms, with the remaining 24 percent made up of instructional laboratories.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The development of Western's present campus began in the 1920s. Many of the university's earliest buildings used Collegiate Gothic designs, a characteristic confirmed in Western's master building plan in 1934. As the campus expanded in the late 1960s, the university abandoned earlier commitments to Collegiate Gothic designs in favour of brutalist and modernist architectural designs. In 2000, planning for Western's central campus was re-conceptualized, with the core devoted for only academic buildings. The plan saw University College Hill as the focal point, linking the lower portion of the campus with the South Valley The 2006 campus master plan called for the protection and renewed emphasis on Western's Collegiate Gothic buildings. The university's boiler room/power plant is the oldest building on the university's central campus, opening in 1922. The oldest academic buildings within the central campus is University College and the Physics and Astronomy Building. Groundbreaking for both buildings began in 1922, and were both completed in 1924. The Amit Chakma Engineering Building is the newest academic building on campus, opening in September 2018. The Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, or WIRB, is the newest building on campus and houses state-of-the art research facilities for the study of cognitive neuroscience as well as the Brain and Mind Institute, BrainsCAN, and the Rotman Institute for Philosophy.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university's library system, Western Libraries, operates six libraries that house more than 2.45 million books , as well as electronic resources including e-books, serial titles, and databases. Libraries a part of the system include the Allyn and Betty Taylor Library, C. B. Johnston Library, the D. B. Weldon Library, the Education Library, the John & Dotsa Bitove Family Law Library, and the Music Library. Allyn and Betty Taylor Library primarily services the faculties of Engineering, Health Sciences, Science, and the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, while the C. B. Johnston Library primarily serves the Ivey Business School. The D. B. Weldon Library primarily services the faculties of Arts & Humanities, Information & Media Studies, and Social Sciences. The D. B. Weldon Library also houses the university's Archives and Research Collections Centre. Western Libraries also maintains the Shared Library Catalogue, which provides common access to the collections of Western Libraries, as well as the collections from the libraries of university colleges affiliated with the Western, including Brescia University College, Huron University College, King's University College, and St. Peter's Seminary. Access to the Shared University Catalogue is provided to students and faculty of Western, and the affiliated university colleges.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Western also operates two art galleries, the Artlab Gallery, and the McIntosh Gallery. Located in the John Labatt Visual Arts Centre, the Artlab Gallery showcases approximately 14 projects per year, exploring conceptual and experimental production through a wide range of media. The Artlab Gallery also aims to assist in the research and practices of students and faculty members. The McIntosh Gallery is a university-based, public art gallery, opened since 1942. The gallery is a presentation and dissemination centre for the university, as well as the London community, showcasing advanced practices and research in art history and contemporary visual art. The gallery is the oldest university art gallery in the province of Ontario, initially opened as an exhibition of paintings by war artists from the National Gallery of Canada. 683 works of the Gallery's collection were put on display throughout the university's main campus through the Gallery's ArtShare program in 2014.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Western also maintains academic and administrative links with the Museum of Ontario Archaeology. The Museum originally grew out of a collection of artifacts housed in various buildings throughout London, including Western's University College, and Middlesex College. Formally opened on 28 February 1978, its creation was facilitated by the university president and Western's Faculty of Social Science. Although the museum was incorporated as an independent charitable organization, without the ability to share capital, its directors continued to be appointed by the university's Board of Governors.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The main campus of The University of Western Ontario offers student housing, with nine student residences housing either first-year students or upper-year students. In September 2015, 23.49 percent of the undergraduate population lived on campus, including 78.69 percent of all first-year students. Each residence operates their own Residences' Council, governed by their own constitutions. Student residence building are split between traditional-styled residences, suite-styled residences, and hybrid-style residences that incorporate elements of traditional and suite-styled residences.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Traditional-styled residences include Delaware Hall, Medway-Sydenham Hall, and Saugeen-Maitland Hall. Suite-styled residences include Alumni House, Elgin Hall, Essex Hall, and London Hall. Hybrid-styled residences include Perth Hall and Ontario Hall. Alumni House and London Hall are reserved strictly for upper-year students. The largest residential building at the university is Saugeen–Maitland Hall, which houses 1,252 first-year students. The smallest residential building is Alumni House, which houses 224 upper-year students. The university also operates three apartments on campus strictly for upper-year and graduate students. The university's apartments consist of Bayfield Hall, made up of 299 1-bedroom units, Beaver & Ausable Halls, made up of 99 2-bedroom units, and Lambton Hall, made up of 150 2-bedroom units. Starting September 2021, Lambton Hall was converted into a first-year residence; while Bayfield Hall will become a partial first-year residence in the following year.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The support system in Residences at Western is made up of over 500 upper-year students who take on various roles and positions, with the goal being to assist first-year students and act as a resource for them. These positions include Residence Staff, Academic and Leadership Programmers, Community Leaders, Residence and Faculty Sophs, Residents' Council, Residence Tour Guides, and Connect-IT Staff Members. Residence Staff and Sophs live alongside first-year students across Western's various residences, and assist in building an atmosphere to allow first-year students to grow and adjust to university life.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The University Community Centre acts as Western's student activity centre, and is the university's centre of student governance and student directed social, cultural, entertainment and recreational activities. The University Community Centre contains the offices of a number of student organizations, including the undergraduate student union, the University Students' Council, as well as the graduate student union, the Society of Graduate Students. In addition, the University Community Centre also provides a number of retail and food services, as well as a variety of club space and study rooms.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: In addition to The University of Western Ontario's central campus, the university owns several other properties throughout Southwestern Ontario. Excluding Western's central campus,


title: University of Western Ontario

text: as well as the campuses of Western's affiliated university colleges, Western owns approximately of land. Included among these properties is a number of research facilities. Managed under Western Research Parks, the facilities are clustered into three research parks. The three parks serve as a research link between academics and corporations.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The oldest research park operated by Western is Discovery Park, adjacent to the university's main campus. The research park was established in 1989, with tenants ranging from national government laboratories, to large-multi-industrial research centres. Discovery Park also includes a 48-room hotel and conference centre, Windermere Manor. The Advanced Manufacturing Park is another research park established through a partnership between Western, Fanshawe College and the City of London. Advanced Manufacturing Park is a research park, built in an area zoned for full-scale manufacturing and large-scale research. The WindEEE Dome is among the facilities built in the Advanced Manufacturing Park. The WindEEE Dome is the world's first hexagonal wind tunnel, allowing for scientists to address certain challenges related to wind. The structure is able to accommodate replicas of buildings, and bridges to test for structural integrity in a variety of wind conditions. The facility is able to physically simulate high intensity wind systems, including tornados, and downbursts hard to replicate in other wind tunnels. In 2003, Western opened another research park known as the Sarnia-Lambton Research park, in a joint initiative with Lambton County, and Sarnia. The research park is adjacent to Lambton College and is home to Canada's largest clean technology business incubator.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university also manages several residences outside the central campus. The official residence of the university president, Gibbons Lodge, is off-campus. Completed in 1932, the Tudor Revival-styled house is north of Western's central campus. It was acquired by the university in 1960. In addition to Gibbons Lodge, the university also maintains Platt's Lane Estates, a complex of townhouses and apartments south of the university's campus. The complex was designed to accommodate upper-year, graduate, and students with families.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Campus sustainability at Western is managed by the President's Advisory Committee on Environment & Sustainability. The committee's mandate includes incorporating sustainability into the academic programming, engaging in research across the disciplines into issues of environmental sustainability, using ecological landscaping methods and preserving green space and building and renovating facilities in accordance with energy efficiency and sustainability principles Along with the other members of the Council of Ontario Universities, Western had signed a pledge in 2009 known as "Ontario Universities Committed to a Greener World", with the objective of transforming its campus into a model of environmental responsibility. Western is also a signatory of the Talloires Declaration, a sustainability declaration created for presidents of higher education. The university campus received a B− grade from the Sustainable Endowments Institute on its College Sustainability Report Card for 2011.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university's governance is conducted through the Board of Governors and the Senate. The Senate was the university's first governing body, created in the university's founding document, An Act to Incorporate the Western University of London, Ontario, 1878. The Board of Governors was later established in An Act to amend the Act to incorporate the Western University of London, Ontario, 1892. The Board is responsible for the university's management, including financial matters. Ex officio governors of the Board include the university's chancellor, president, the mayor of London, the warden of Middlesex County and the secretary of the Board of Governors. The Board also consists of 26 other governors either appointed or elected by the members of the university's community and the surrounding community, including elected representatives from the student body.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The Senate is responsible for the university's academic policies. The Senate consists of 20 "ex officio" positions in the Senate granted to the chancellor, the president, the university's vice-presidents, the senior dean of each faculty, the university librarian and the secretary of the senate. The secretary of the senate is a non-voting "ex officio" member. The Senate also consists of 46 elected members from the university's faculty, 18 members from the student population, and 9 members from the Western's affiliated colleges, including their principals. The Senate also consists of 9 other members from around the university community. In all, there are 103 members of the Senate, 102 of which may vote and 10–13 official observers of the Senate.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The president and vice-chancellor acts as the university's chief executive officer, accountable to the Board of Governors and the Senate, by supervising and directing the university's academic and administrative work and its teaching and non-teaching staff. Alan Shepard is the tenth president of the university, who began his tenure as president on 1 July 2019. The chancellor of the university acts as the honorary and symbolic head of the university. The position of chancellor is a four-year, non-renewable term. The university's current chancellor is Linda Hasenfratz, who was appointed to the position on 1 July 2019.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The University of Western Ontario is affiliated to three university colleges. Brescia University College is an all-women's Catholic-based university college, the only remaining women's college in Canada. Founded by the Ursulines in 1919, an affiliation agreement with Western was arranged shortly after its founding, with Brescia campus moving adjacent to Western's central campus in 1925. Huron University College was founded in 1863, originally established as Huron College, and renamed Huron University College in 2000. Huron's affiliation with Western was authorized in Western's first provincial charter, in 1878. Both Huron and Western share the same progenitor in Bishop Issac Hellmuth. Huron moved to its present location, adjacent to Western's central campus, in 1951. King's University College was founded in 1954, as a Catholic-based liberal arts college. Founded as Christ the King's College, it changed its name to King's College in 1966, and King's University College in 2004. Regardless of the university college's religious affiliation, enrolment in the those institutions is not restricted based on the student's religious beliefs.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: In addition to the three university colleges, Western also maintains an affiliation with St. Peter's Seminary through its affiliation with King's University College. Founded in 1912, St. Peters was opened as the seminary for the Roman Catholic Diocese of London. The campuses of King's University College and St. Peter's Seminary are east of Richmond Street and the university's central campus.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Students registered with an affiliated university colleges has access to all of Western's facilities, the university's sports and recreation services, and its club system. Graduates of the affiliated university colleges also receive their degrees from Western. The resources of Western Libraries, the three libraries of the affiliated university colleges, and the library of St. Peter's Seminary is shared among the students of Western, and its affiliated institutions through the Shared Library Catalogue. The affiliated institutions maintain their own campuses, residences, as well as academic faculties. However, enrolment in courses offered by Western, or an affiliated institutions remains open to all students registered with either the university, or one of its affiliated institutions.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Western is a publicly funded research university, and a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. The full-time undergraduate programs comprise the majority of the school's enrolment, made up of 30,665 full-time, part-time undergraduate students and concurrent education students. The graduate student population is 5,297, including full-time students, part-time students and post-graduate medical residents. The university conferred 4,504 bachelor's degrees, 207 doctoral degrees, 1,427 master's degrees, and 1,180 second entry professional degrees in 2008–2009. Students may apply for financial aid such as the Ontario Student Assistance Program and Canada Student Loans and Grants through the federal and provincial governments. The financial aid may come in loans, grants, bursaries, scholarships, fellowships, debt reduction, interest relief, and work programs.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university is divided into 11 faculties and schools including the Don Wright Faculty of Music, the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Information & Media Studies, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Social Science, Ivey School of Business, and the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. In September 2016, most undergraduates at Western was enrolled in the Faculty of Social Sciences, with 7,114 full-time and part-time undergraduate students in enrolled in one of their programs. In the same year, the Faculty of Health Science held the highest enrolment among graduate students at Western, with 821 full-time and part-time graduate students enrolled in the faculty. The School Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies is the university's central administrative unit of graduate education. However, it is not considered its own faculty or academic school.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Admission requirements at Western differ depending upon the education system where the applicant originates from, due to the lack of uniformity in marking schemes. In September 2012 secondary school average for full-time first-year students at Western was 89.3 percent. For admission in the fall of 2013, there were 45,000 applications for 4,900 spaces.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university also offers students the opportunity to earn credits while studying abroad, through student exchange programs, and internship, faculty-led international excursions, and clinical placements.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: In the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities rankings, the university ranked 201–300 in the world and 9–12 in Canada. The 2023 QS World University Rankings ranked the university 172nd in the world and eighth in Canada. The 2023 Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked Western 201–250 in the world, and 8–10 in Canada. In "U.S. News & World Report" 2022–23 global university rankings, the university placed 300th in the world, and tenth in Canada. In "Maclean's" 2023 rankings, Western placed 11th in their Medical-Doctoral university category, tied with Université Laval. The university also ranked 13th in "Maclean" reputation category.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university has also placed in a number of rankings that evaluated the employment prospects of its graduates. In QS's 2022 graduate employability ranking, the university ranked 43rd in the world, and third in Canada.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Western has four primary fields of research: life sciences and the human condition, culture analysis and values, the human and physical environments, and social trends, public policy, and economic activity. In Research Infosource's 2018 ranking of Canadian research universities, Western was ranked 10th; with a sponsored research income (external funding) of $249.669 million in 2017. In 2017, members of Western's faculty averaged a sponsored research income of $166,100, while graduate students averaged a sponsored research income $41,600. The federal government is the largest source of funding providing 46 percent of Western's research budget, primarily through grants. Private corporations contribute 10 per cent of Western's research budget.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Western's research performance has been noted several bibliometric university rankings, which uses citation analysis to evaluates the impact a university has on academic publications. In 2019, the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities ranked Western 197th in the world, and ninth in Canada, whereas the University Ranking by Academic Performance 2018–19 rankings placed the university 187th in the world, and ninth in Canada.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Research regarding the human brain has also become a major focus at the university. The Brain and Mind Institute focuses on research in cognitive neuroscience at Western. In 2011, the Institute discovered the blind may perform echolocation by using the visual cortex of the brain. Another 2011 study at Western suggested people who are deaf from birth may be able to reassign the area of their brain used for hearing to boost their sight. Western also is home to the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, the first dedicated space institute providing a planetary science degree in Canada. The institute plays a key role in cutting edge multidisciplinary research on planetary bodies including real time mission operations for spacecraft and telescopes orbiting solar system bodies.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: In 2014, the university unveiled plans for a 4,200-square-foot facility for research in medicine, science and technology, in the study of HIV and other complex human pathogens. Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry's Department of Microbiology and Immunology is globally recognized, in large part due to the groundbreaking discoveries of Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, a Western researcher clinically testing a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine. SAV001-H is the first and only preventive HIV vaccine based on a genetically modified killed whole HIV-1 virus. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Phase I clinical trial was completed in August 2013 and reported no serious adverse effects while boosting antibodies in the volunteers. The vaccine SAV001-H holds tremendous promise, having already proven to stimulate strong immune responses in preliminary toxicology tests. It is the only HIV vaccine under development in Canada, and one of only a few in the world.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The two main student unions on administrative and policy issues is the University Students' Council for all undergraduate students and the Society of Graduate Students for graduate students. The University Students' Council recognizes more than 180 student organizations and clubs, in which more than 19,500 people are a member. These clubs and organizations cover a wide range of interests such as academics, culture, religion, social issues, and recreation. The University Students' Council also provides additional services such as the campus movie theatre (Western Film), pub/restaurant (The Spoke & Rim Tavern), clothing store (The Purple Store) and print shop. These facilities can all be found in the University Community Centre.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: There are a number of fraternities and sororities existing throughout the student community. There are five international sororities at Western, Alpha Gamma Delta, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta & Pi Beta Phi. There are also ten fraternities existing at Western, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Upsilon, Kappa Sigma, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Pi Kappa Alpha, Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Chi, Zeta Psi, and Kappa Alpha Society.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Athletics at Western is managed by Sports & Recreation Services, a division of the Faculty of Health Sciences. The university's varsity teams compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of U Sports. The varsity teams are known as the Western Mustangs. As is mandatory for all members of U Sports, Western does not provide full-ride athletic scholarships. Western's varsity teams have been highly successful. In particular, the football team has won 32 provincial championships, appeared in 16 national championship finals and won 7 Vanier Cup championships as well as 3 earlier Churchill Bowl championships as national champions. Basketball has won 24 provincial championships and rowing has won 23 provincial championships. The squash team has won two NCAA championship titles.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university has a number of athletic facilities open to their varsity teams and their students. The Western Student Recreation Centre, opened in January 2009, is home to Western's group fitness, drop in recreation, registered massage therapy, sport psychology, drop in recreation, intramural sports and clubs. Better known as the WSRC or the Rec Centre, this facility has an 8-lane, 50-metre pool facility. Overlooking the pool is a 3-tiered concrete viewing area. A 1-metre diving board is also available. There is over 19,000 square feet of weight, cardio, and stretching space within the WSRC. There are three gyms on the first floor, and two more on the upper level. Outside the lower gyms is the 1st floor games and activity lounge for table tennis, while outside of the upper gym spaces is cardio space as well as the destination for spin bike programming. Also on the 4th floor are two large studio spaces where the drop in fitness, clubs and dance courses take place.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Western Alumni Stadium (Formerly TD Stadium) has been the university's main stadium since it opened in 2000, with a seating capacity of over 8,000 spectators. The stadium is home to the university's varsity football team, and has hosted a number of events including the World Lacrosse Championships and the Canada Games. The Thompson Recreation & Athletic Centre which houses a number of athletic venues, including an ice rink, tennis facilities and a track, is home to the varsity ice hockey teams and the varsity track and field teams. Another athletic facility at the university is Alumni Hall, which is a multipurpose venue for sports such as basketball, volleyball and other indoor events.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Many Western students take part in intramural sport leagues and tournaments. Opportunities are offered at multiple skill levels and across a variety of sports. Sports offered include traditional sports like volleyball, basketball and soccer, as well as less traditional events like dodgeball and inner tube water polo. Western also hosts secondary school football games at TD Stadium. Western has several fight songs and school songs that may be heard at varsity games, including the official school song, "Western". Written in 1930, it is most notably played at football games and other athletic events by the Western Mustang Band.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The Don Wright Faculty of Music offers almost 400 performances, masterclasses and recitals each year, most of which are open to the public. The Western University Symphony Orchestra and the Western University Chamber Orchestra perform regularly under conductor Alain Trudel. UWOpera, under the direction of Theodore Baerg, performs a wide variety of repertoire ranging from operetta to full operatic works in the Paul Davenport Theatre (refurbished and renamed in 2009 from Talbot Theatre).


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Theatre Western produces a season that includes an annual musical revue of modern and classic Broadway, Purple Shorts (Western's One-Act Play Festival,) and a major musical production each spring. The Huron Underground Dramatic Society (HUDS) is a student run drama group that puts on several shows per year.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The university's student population operates a number of media outlets throughout the campus environment. The University Students' Council owns and operates the campus radio station CHRW-FM (94.9 FM). The first campus radio to operate at Western was in 1971, although the present day station CHRW-FM, was not established until 1979, one year after the closure of the Western's first campus radio station.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The University Students' Council previously operated a closed-circuit television station known as tvWestern.ca. The station began broadcasting in 1994, and was discontinued by the student union in 2010 after being cut from the University Students' Council's operating budget.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: "The Gazette", sometimes called the "Western Gazette", is a student newspaper which has been in publication since 1906. The "Gazette" publishes online daily and in print on Tuesdays during the academic year. "The Gazette" has its roots as a hand-written literature newspaper called "In Cap And Gown", which began in 1902. The "In Cap And Gown" was first produced in newsprint in November 1906, but changed its name to "The Gazette" in 1908. The "Gazette" ceased publishing in the spring of 1916 due to World War 1 but was revived in its old form in 1919. In 1930, 7 years after Western University changed its name to the University of Western Ontario, the paper changed its name to the "University of Western Ontario Gazette". It is now known simply as "The Gazette", its affiliation with Western variously recognized in its print edition as "Western University's official student newspaper." "The Gazette" started as monthly but in its early years appeared weekly and twice weekly. It started publishing four times a week in 1991 and returned to the twice-weekly format in 2015. The change in print publication schedule was accompanied by a major digital transformation. The newspaper has moved towards a digital-first philosophy and focuses on multimedia and online-only content on a daily basis. In 2017, the "Gazette" began printing only once a week. The Western Gazette absorbed the assets of Western TV in 2016. Western TV was formally the Big Purple Couch and TV Western.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: "The Gazette" has spawned several other publications in its history. One was "Occidentalia", which had its roots in special convocation issues of the "Gazette" which included pictures of the graduating class. "Oxy" as it was known became the university's year book and it provided "an interesting record of the year's activities in all Faculties and Schools." The paper is owned and published by the University Students' Council (USC). The paper has editorial autonomy from the USC. The publications committee consists of mainly professional journalists who advise the full-time staff on editorial decisions and financial management of the paper, as well as offer an intermediary between the sometimes contentious relationship between the student politicians who are reported on by the "Gazette". The paper is one of the founding members of the National University Wire. The Gazette has a long history of producing some of Canada's most well-known journalists. Gazette alumni have worked at many successful media networks including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, MacLean's, CBC, CTV, Al Jazeera, Sportsnet and The New York Times. Some notable alumni include: Stephen Brunt, Susan Delacourt, Kevin Donovan, Scott Feschuk, Elliotte Friedman, Kevin Newman, Carol Off, Alan Thicke, Paul Wells and Aaron Wherry.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The Leadership Education Program is designed to teach students how to become effective leaders, both individually and in teams. The program is split into three tiers: individual leadership, group leadership, and community leadership. To successfully complete a tier an individual must complete at least five of its seven modules. Upon completion, students receive a Letter of Accomplishment signed by the dean of the university.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: The University of Western Ontario offers a student exchange program to study abroad with several other partner institutions. Almost four hundred students come to Western each year as exchange students from all over the world, with even more students coming to Western as international undergraduate or exchange students. The Western International Exchange Program offers its students the opportunity to study at more than 85 different institutions in 25 countries.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: , the University of Western Ontario has over 220,000 alumni residing in over 100 countries. Throughout Western's history, faculty, alumni, and former students have played prominent roles in many different fields and have won the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize and other awards such as the Rhodes Scholarship. Former faculty member Frederick Banting received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of insulin. Alice Munro, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013, studied in the university's English department for two years under a scholarship and returned to Western in 1974–75, when she held the post of writer-in-residence. She was later awarded an honorary degree. Two graduates from Western have also travelled in space, namely Bjarni Tryggvason and Roberta Bondar.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: Many former students have gained local and national prominence for serving in government, such as James Bartleman, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 2002 to 2007, and Sheila Copps who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. Western's alumni also include a number of provincial premiers, including former premiers of Ontario John Robarts and David Peterson, and the former premier of Alberta, Don Getty. A number of graduates have also served prominent positions on the international level. Examples include Glenn Stevens, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia and Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organization.


title: University of Western Ontario

text: A significant number of prominent leaders in business and economics have also studied at Western. Examples include: Stephen Poloz, Governor, Bank of Canada, Thomas H. Bailey, founder and former chairman of Janus Capital Group, Geoff Beattie, president of The Woodbridge Company and chairman of CTVglobemedia, George Cope, president and CEO of Bell Canada Enterprise, Joseph Muncaster, president of Canadian Tire, Edward Rogers III, deputy chairman of Rogers Communications, and former president of Rogers Cable, Arkadi Kuhlmann, chairman of ING Direct, Rob McEwen, founder, chairman and former CEO of Goldcorp Inc., John Thompson, former chairman of Toronto-Dominion Bank and chancellor of Western, Prem Watsa, chairman, CEO of Fairfax Financial, Lee Seng Wee, former chairman of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Galen Weston, chairman and president of George Weston Limited, Howard Lindzon, author and founder of StockTwits, businesswoman Margaret Heng, CEO of Shatec, a Singapore-based hospitality training institution, and Kevin O'Leary, television personality, venture capitalist, and former president of The Learning Company.


title: Mordovia

text: The Republic of Mordovia (; , "Mordovija Respublikś"; , "Mordovija Respublikaś") is a republic of Russia, located in Eastern Europe. Its capital is the city of Saransk. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the republic was 834,755. Ethnic Russians (53.1%) and Mordvins (39.8%) account for the majority of the population.


title: Mordovia

text: The earliest archaeological signs of modern humans in the area of Mordovia are from the Neolithic era. Mordvins are mentioned in written sources from the 6th century. Later, Mordvins were under the influence of both Volga Bulgaria and the Kievan Rus. Mordvin princes sometimes raided Muroma and Volga Bulgaria and often despoiled each other's holdings.


title: Mordovia

text: The Mongols conquered vast areas of Eastern Europe in the 13th century. They established the Khanate of the Golden Horde in 1241, subjugating the area of Mordovia. Mordvins fought against Mongols and later alongside Russians. Mordvin lands territorially belonged to Mukhsha Ulus. The Golden Horde disintegrated in the 1430s, which resulted in some Mordvins becoming subjects of the Khanate of Kazan, whereas others were incorporated into Muscovy.


title: Mordovia

text: After Ivan IV of Russia annexed the Khanate of Kazan in 1552, the Mordvin lands were subjugated by the Russian monarchy. The Mordvin elite rapidly adopted the Russian language and Russian customs, whereas 1821 saw the publication of the New Testament in Erzya to address the non-elite population. In rural areas, the Mordvin culture was preserved. Russians started to convert Mordvins to Orthodox Christianity in the mid-18th century. Mordvins gave up their own shamanist religion only slowly, however, and many of shamanist features were preserved as parts of local culture, though the population became nominally Christian. Translations of literature to Mordvin languages were mostly religious books. In the 18th century, the Latin alphabet was used to write Mordvin, but from the mid-19th century, Cyrillic was used.


title: Mordovia

text: During the Russian revolution and civil war, Mordovia was held by Bolsheviks from the beginning of the war. When the Bolsheviks prevailed in the war, Mordovia became a part of the Russian SFSR. In 1925, the Soviet government founded autonomous districts and village councils in the area of the Mordvins. During the Soviet era, two written languages were developed, one based on the Erzya dialect in 1922 and one on the Moksha dialect in 1923, both using Cyrillic script. The was founded on July 16, 1928, and it was elevated to the status of an autonomous oblast becoming the on January 10, 1930. The autonomous oblast was transformed into the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on December 20, 1934. Several forced labor Gulags were established under the Bolsheviks, such as Temlag.


title: Mordovia

text: When the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Mordovian ASSR proclaimed itself the Mordovian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1990 and remained a part of the Russian Federation. Mordovia was one of only two republics that did not proclaim sovereignty. On January 25, 1994, it was renamed the Republic of Mordovia.


title: Mordovia

text: The republic is located in the eastern part of the East European Plain of Russia. The western part of the republic is situated in the Oka–Don Plain; its eastern and central parts are located in the Volga Upland.


title: Mordovia

text: During the Parade of Sovereignties among other former Russian autonomous republics, Mordovia established a presidency in 1991.


title: Mordovia

text: In that same year, Vasily Guslyannikov, a physicist by training, was elected in the general election. Guslyannikov had previously been a senior researcher at the Institute of Power Electronics and was the leader of the republican branch of the Democratic Russia political movement.


title: Mordovia

text: In 1993, the Supreme Council of Mordovia abolished the post of president, on the basis of which Guslyannikov was removed from his post. Guslyannikov appealed the action of the supreme legislative body of the republic in the Russian Constitutional Court, but the Constitutional Court declared its conformity with the Constitution of Russia.


title: Mordovia

text: The head of the government in the Republic of Mordovia is the Head of the Republic. The office is currently held by Artyom Zdunov, who was made acting head on 18 November 2020. His predecessor was Vladimir Volkov who held the office from 2012.


title: Mordovia

text: The most developed industries are machine construction, chemicals, woodworking, and food industries. Most of the industrial enterprises are located in the capital Saransk, as well as in the towns of Kovylkino and Ruzayevka, and in the urban-type settlements of Chamzinka and Komsomolsky.


title: Mordovia

text: The largest companies in the region include Unimilk (branch of Danone Russia), Ruzayevsky Chemical Machine-Building Plant, Mordovcement, Saranskkabel.


title: Mordovia

text: The Mordvin people are a Volga Finnic group speaking two related languages, Moksha and Erzya. The Mordvins identify themselves as separate ethnic groups: the Erzya and Moksha. Only one-third of all Mordvinic languages speakers live in the Republic of Mordovia. During the Soviet period, school textbooks were published in each language.


title: Mordovia

text: According to the 2010 Census, Russians make up 53.4% of the republic's population, while ethnic Erzya and Moksha are 39.8%. Other groups include Tatars (5.2%), Ukrainians (0.6%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.


title: Mordovia

text: According to a 2012 survey, 68.6% of the population of Mordovia adhere to the Russian Orthodox Church (there are many churches and monasteries, for example, Monastery of John the Evangelist in Makarovka), 5% are unaffiliated Christians, 2% are Muslims, 1% are Old Believers. In addition, 10% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 7% are atheist, and 6.4% follow Buddhism only in the city of Saransk. Some Mordvins adhere to the Mordvin native religion.


title: Mordovia

text: The most important facilities of higher education include Mordovian State University and Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute in Saransk.


title: Mordovia

text: There are many museums in the republic. The largest ones include the "Mordovian Republican United Museum of Regional Studies" and the "Museum of Mordvinian Culture" in Saransk.


title: Mordovia

text: The "State Puppet Theater" of the Republic of Mordovia, located in Saransk, is well known in Russia. Most of the plays performed in this theater are Russian fairy-tales.


title: Mordovia

text: The House and Museum of F. Sychkov was opened on March 11, 1970, at Kochelaevo, Kovylkinsky District after a reconstruction.


title: Mordovia

text: Mordovia is home to multiple penal colonies. Prisons in Mordovia are regarded by many as having conditions harsher than most Russian prisons. According to University of Helsinki sociologist Olga Zeveleva, who works with the Gulag Echoes project studying Russian prison conditions, "Prisons in Mordovia are notoriously terrible, even by Russian standards. The prisons there are known for the harsh regimes and human rights violations.” According to "The Guardian", a popular saying among female prison inmates in Russia is “If you haven’t done time in Mordovia, you haven’t done time at all.” The prison was built as a part of a system of similar prisons in the region in the 1930s during the Soviet era. University of Oxford scholar Judith Pallot described the prison as being "stuck in time for 50 years." Violence from other prisoners and prison guards is not as frequent as in men's prisons, but isn't uncommon. As of 2022, among the prisoners held in Mordovia's penal colonies is Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen accused of spying and sentenced to 16 years.


title: Mordovia

text: Mordovia, along with neighbour Chuvashia and Penza Oblast, has given some of the best modern racewalking athletes, both women (Olga Kaniskina, Anisya Kirdyapkina, Elena Lashmanova, Olena Shumkina, Irina Stankina) and men (Sergey Bakulin, Valeriy Borchin, Stanislav Emelyanov, Vladimir Kanaykin, Sergey Kirdyapkin, Sergey Morozov, Denis Nizhegorodov, Roman Rasskazov), apart from Alexei Nemov (see more in the article History of Mordovian sport).


title: Mordovia

text: The Mordvinic languages, alternatively Mordvin languages, or Mordvinian languages (, "Mordovskiye yazyki", the official Russian term for the language pair),


title: Mordovia

text: are a subgroup of the Uralic languages, comprising the closely related Erzya language and Moksha language.


title: Mordovia

text: it is now treated as a small language grouping consisting of just two languages. Due to differences in phonology, lexicon, and grammar, Erzya and Moksha are not mutually intelligible, so the Russian language is often used for intergroup communications.


title: Mordovia

text: The two Mordvinic languages also have separate literary forms. The Erzya literary language was created in 1922 and the Mokshan in 1923.


title: Michael Showalter

text: Michael Showalter (born June 17, 1970) is an American comedian, actor, director, writer, and producer. He first came to recognition as a cast member on MTV's "The State", which aired from 1993 to 1995. He and David Wain created the "Wet Hot American Summer" franchise, with Showalter co-writing and starring in "Wet Hot American Summer" (2001), and the Netflix series. Showalter wrote and directed "The Baxter" (2005), in which he starred with Michelle Williams, Justin Theroux, and Elizabeth Banks. Both films featured many of his co-stars from "The State", and so do several of his other projects. Showalter is also a co-creator, co-producer, actor, and writer for the TV series "Search Party". He directed the 2017 critically acclaimed feature film "The Big Sick".


title: Michael Showalter

text: Showalter was born in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of Elaine Showalter (née Cottler), an author, feminist literary critic, and professor of English, and English Showalter, a Yale-educated professor of 18th century French literature. His father is Episcopalian and his mother is Jewish. He has one older sister, Vinca Showalter LaFleur, a professional speechwriter. He attended Princeton High School. For five years, Showalter shared an apartment with his friend, comedian and actress Andrea Rosen.


title: Michael Showalter

text: Showalter began his undergraduate studies at New York University, where he joined the sketch comedy group The New Group. He transferred to and graduated from Brown University. After he completed college, The New Group changed its name to The State and began creating video shorts for an MTV show called "You Wrote It, You Watch It", hosted by Jon Stewart. The comedy troupe then got its own sketch comedy TV series, "The State" , which aired for two years on MTV.


title: Michael Showalter

text: Showalter has also had several smaller roles in movies and TV shows. He played Ron Parker, the arrogant host of "Cheap Seats", on ESPN Classic in the pilot episode. However, after a bookcase fell on Showalter's character, tape librarians (and brothers) Randy and Jason Sklar took over the hosting duties. Showalter spent a brief time as a correspondent on "The Daily Show" (1996). He is also one half of The Doilies, an acoustic comedy band, in which he sings lead vocals opposite guitarist Zak Orth. In 2005 he wrote, directed and starred in the film "The Baxter".


title: Michael Showalter

text: Showalter is the host of "The Michael Showalter Showalter", an original Internet series on Collegehumor.com which premiered January 16, 2007. His first guest was comedian Zach Galifianakis. Other guests have included David Cross, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, David Wain, Andy Samberg, Michael Cera, and Mike Birbiglia. In the fall and winter of 2006, Showalter toured the US with frequent collaborator Michael Ian Black. In March 2007 Showalter briefly toured as the opening act for Janeane Garofalo. "The Ten" reunites him with frequent collaborators from "The State".


title: Michael Showalter

text: Showalter signed with JDub Records, a non-profit record label, in June 2007. He released his first stand-up CD titled "Sandwiches & Cats " in November 2007. He teaches screenwriting at New York University's Graduate Film School.


title: Michael Showalter

text: Showalter teamed up once more with Michael Ian Black in the Comedy Central series "Michael and Michael Have Issues", which premiered in July 2009. The show detailed the two Michaels' trials and tribulations as they create a television series. They confirmed the series' cancellation in early 2010.


title: Michael Showalter

text: In an interview with "The Rumpus" in February 2009, Showalter talked about a memoir he is working on. "I am writing an 'important' memoir about not being able to write an important memoir. It winds up being kind of a novel-length comedic essay on insecurity and procrastination." The book, "Mr. Funny Pants", was published in February 2011.


title: Michael Showalter

text: He appeared twice on the NBC drama "Law & Order": in the episode "Endurance", which aired on October 18, 2000, and in the episode "Reality Bites", which aired on October 16, 2009.


title: Michael Showalter

text: Showalter also appeared in a series of commercials advertising the Toyota Yaris, starting in late 2011.


title: Michael Showalter

text: In 2013 Showalter and Michael Ian Black launched a podcast called "Topics" in which the duo discuss evergreen topics in a serious manner, although if something funny comes up, it's okay.


title: Michael Showalter

text: In 2014, Showalter co-wrote with David Wain "They Came Together". Wain and Showalter then co-wrote the eight-episode Netflix prequel "" based on the 2001 film with almost the entire cast of the original film returning. Showalter himself appeared as Gerald "Coop" Cooperberg and President Ronald Reagan in the series. The series premiered on July 31, 2015, and was more well received by critics. He also co-wrote and starred in the Netflix sequel "" which premiered in 2017.


title: Michael Showalter

text: In 2015 his film "Hello, My Name Is Doris" debuted at SXSW, where it was acquired by Roadside Attractions. It was released in the United States in March 2016, and received critical acclaim.


title: Michael Showalter

text: His 2017 film "The Big Sick" starred Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter and Ray Romano. It saw a wide theatrical release and had an overwhelmingly positive 98% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.


title: Michael Showalter

text: Showalter next directed the 2020 film "The Lovebirds", starring Kumail Nanjiani of "The Big Sick", along with Issa Rae, Anna Camp and Paul Sparks. The film was scheduled for theatrical release in the United States on April 3, 2020, however due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic its theatrical release was cancelled, similar to many other films, and it premiered on Netflix on May 22, 2020. More recently, he signed an overall deal with HBO Max.


title: Michael Showalter

text: Showalter married Anne Kalin Ellis on January 16, 2011, in New York. Anne gave birth to their twin children in 2014.


title: John A. Chapman

text: John Allan Chapman (July 14, 1965 – March 4, 2002) was a combat controller in the United States Air Force who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on August 22, 2018, for his actions in the Battle of Takur Ghar during the War in Afghanistan. He is the first airman to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. He was inducted into the Hall of Heroes on August 23, 2018, and posthumously promoted to Master Sergeant on the following day.


title: John A. Chapman

text: Chapman was also the first Air Force combat controller to be awarded the Air Force Cross. His award was subsequently upgraded to the Medal of Honor.


title: John A. Chapman

text: John Chapman was born July 14, 1965, in Springfield, Massachusetts to Eugene and Terry Chapman and grew up in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. He had two sisters, Lori and Tammy, and a brother, Kevin. He graduated from Windsor Locks High School in 1983.


title: John A. Chapman

text: Chapman enlisted in the United States Air Force on September 27, 1985, and was trained as an information systems operator. His first assignment was with the 1987th Information Systems Squadron at Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado from February 1986 to June 1989.


title: John A. Chapman

text: Chapman cross-trained into the combat control career field and served with the 1721st Combat Control Squadron at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina from August 1990 to November 1992.


title: John A. Chapman

text: He was a Special Tactics team member with the 320th Special Tactics Squadron at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa from November 1992 to October 1995. His final assignment was with the 24th Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Air Force Base.


title: John A. Chapman

text: On March 4, 2002, Chapman and members of the United States Navy SEALs took part in Operation Anaconda.


title: John A. Chapman

text: An MH-47E Chinook, call-sign Razor 3, came under enemy fire, causing a Navy SEAL, PO1 Neil C. Roberts, to fall out during an insertion under fire. The helicopter landed away from where Roberts was killed. Once on the ground, Chapman provided directions to another helicopter to pick them up. He and the team volunteered to rescue Roberts from the enemy stronghold.


title: John A. Chapman

text: Upon returning to recover Roberts, the team came under fire from three directions. Chapman charged forward, killing two enemy soldiers and advancing towards a defensive fighting position from minimal personal cover and succumbed to multiple wounds. His engagement and destruction of the first enemy position and advancement to the second enabled his team to move to cover and break enemy contact. He is credited with saving the lives of the entire rescue team.


title: John A. Chapman

text: Fourteen years after Chapman's death, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James began pushing for a Medal of Honor, the military's highest award, after new technology that allowed a deeper analysis of video of the battle suggested Chapman regained consciousness and resumed fighting Al-Qaeda members who were coming toward him from three directions. Chapman may have crawled into a bunker, shot and killed an enemy charging at him and then killed another enemy fighter in hand-to-hand combat.


title: John A. Chapman

text: While the Air Force pushed for Chapman to be recognized, Naval Special Warfare Command allegedly attempted to block Chapman's Medal of Honor as it would result in an admission that Chapman had been left behind. When it became apparent that Chapman's Medal of Honor could not be blocked, it was further alleged that the Navy put the commander of the operation, Britt K. Slabinski, up for the same award, which he received in May 2018. In March 2018, Chapman's family was notified that his Air Force Cross was to be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.


title: John A. Chapman

text: The ceremony took place Wednesday, August 22, 2018. At an August 23 ceremony at the Pentagon attended by family and teammates, Chapman was inducted into the Hall of Heroes, a room dedicated to honor Medal of Honor recipients. The next day, he was posthumously promoted to the rank of Master Sergeant and his name was added to the Medal of Honor wall at the Air Force Memorial.


title: John A. Chapman

text: Chapman met Valerie Novak in 1990 while he and a friend were visiting her hometown of Windber, Pennsylvania. They married in 1992 and had two daughters, Madison and Brianna.


title: John A. Chapman

text: Chapman's actions in the Battle of Takur Ghar were recorded from multiple angles from circling aircraft and are reported to be the first Medal of Honor actions ever recorded on video.


title: John A. Chapman

text: The Military Sealift Command logistics ship MV "TSgt John A. Chapman" (T-AK-323) was renamed in his honor in 2005.


title: John A. Chapman

text: Dan Schilling and Chapman's sister, Lori Chapman Longfritz, wrote a book based on his Medal of Honor action titled "Alone at Dawn: Medal of Honor Recipient John Chapman and the Untold Story of the World's Deadliest Special Operations Force". It has also been optioned for a feature adaptation by Thruline Entertainment. In 2021, it was revealed the film would be called Combat Control, directed by Sam Hargrave and starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Chapman.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: The Guardian is a 2006 American action-adventure drama film directed by Andrew Davis. The film stars Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher and Melissa Sagemiller. The title of the film refers to a legendary figure within the film which protects people lost at sea: "the Guardian". The film focuses on the United States Coast Guard and their Aviation Survival Technician program. "The Guardian" was released on September 29, 2006.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: The film opens with a description of a legend told by people who have survived being lost at sea: a presence, referred to as the Guardian, which pushed them to the surface, enabling them to survive until help arrived.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is the top rescue swimmer at the United States Coast Guard's Aviation Survival Technician (AST) program, but the long hours have destroyed his marriage. When on a rescue, Ben loses his team in a HH-60J Jayhawk helicopter crash at sea. While waiting in a survival raft, his best friend, Chief Petty Officer Carl Billings (Omari Hardwick), dies. Shaken by survivor guilt, Ben is transferred to become an instructor at the Coast Guard AST training school. He develops a legendary reputation among the students for his high number of rescues.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) is a hot-shot candidate for AST. Ranked as a top high school competitive swimmer with scholarships to every Ivy League college, Jake instead opts to enlist in the Coast Guard. During training, Jake meets local schoolteacher, Emily Thomas (Melissa Sagemiller), and they begin a casual relationship.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: The initial weeks of training end with most of the students dropping out and advanced instruction begins. Jake is late for class and Ben punishes his entire class for his tardiness. Believing Jake to be lazy and unmotivated, Ben tries to force him to quit. He gradually begins to see Jake's persistence and dedication.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Jake meets Emily in a bar and tells her about beating Ben's old records. The bartender, a friend of Ben's, tells Jake about a time when Ben injured himself saving every victim from a burning hospital ship full of invalid patients.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Later, a friend of Jake's is afraid of failing school because he is unable to cope with panicked victims in the water. Jake takes him out for a drink at a Navy bar to cheer him up. They get in a fight and land in jail after being badly beaten by the Navy sailors, causing Jake to miss a date with Emily. Jake returns to base and takes the blame for the fight.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Chief Aviation Survival Technician Jack Skinner (Neal McDonough) bails Jake out. Back on base, Ben and Jake get into a confrontation about their pasts. It is revealed that during high school, Jake was involved in a car crash while on the way home with his teammates. It is revealed Jake lost the flip to be the designated driver and, although completely sober, blames himself for the accident. The two bond over the common experience of being the only survivor of fatal accidents. They return to the bar and fight the sailors again, this time winning.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: At graduation, only a handful of candidates remain. Jake has emerged as a leader during training. Emily attends his graduation, but they end their relationship because Jake is leaving for an assignment at CG Air Station Kodiak, Alaska, Ben's previous post.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Ben and Jake are sent to rescue two kayakers trapped in a cave. Ben experiences flashbacks and Jake must guide him, but the rescue is eventually successful. Ben decides to retire after this. He tells Jake that the only record he kept track of was the 22 people he lost during his career. Ben apologizes to his wife and indicates he will not contest the divorce.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Jake is sent to rescue the crew of a sinking fishing trawler. During the rescue, he becomes trapped in the ship. His helicopter is forced to return to base, where Ben hears of the situation and decides to suit up and go out to rescue Jake personally. He frees Jake from the hull. As they are winched upwards towards the helicopter, their combined weight causes the winch cable to begin separating. Knowing that the cable will break, Ben unclips himself so that Jake can survive. Jake catches him, but Ben removes his glove and slips free, plummeting into the ocean. His body is never found.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Much later, Jake is on a rescue mission, when one of the survivors repeats the legend of the Guardian to him. Jake connects the legend to Ben. He then surprises Emily when she is teaching her class at school, telling her that he lied to her. "I can't do just 'casual,'" he says, referencing their commitment earlier to keep things uncommitted. She smiles as they embrace and kiss.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: David Dobkin was originally slated to direct "The Guardian" until being replaced by Andrew Davis. Ron Brinkerhoff was also originally involved, making the pitch for a mid-six-figure-budgeted film, before Disney took over the production.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Following the series of hurricanes in the southern United States in 2005, production moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. Some of the base scenes were filmed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana and at Camp Minden in Minden, Louisiana. Some of the scenes that were supposed to be filmed in Kodiak, Alaska were actually filmed at CG Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Sixty thousand pounds of ice were needed on the set. The training pool used in the movie was LSU–Shreveport's natatorium.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: The film was revised after Hurricane Katrina, with the addition of several comments on the storm and the rescues. The end credits are replete with "glory" shots of U.S. Coast Guard helicopters conducting rescues in the greater New Orleans area. The DVD contains a special feature on U.S. Coast Guard rescue operations, especially in the aftermath of Katrina.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: Many of the supporting actors in "The Guardian", including ASTC instructors, helicopter pilots, and support personnel, are actual U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers, pilots, and ground personnel. Several characters, including Kutcher's, identify themselves as airmen. An airman is the enlisted rating of a Coast Guardsman who is undesignated and/or currently undergoing training in an aviation related field. Similar ratings within the Coast Guard are those of seaman and fireman.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: One of the students was Mark Gangloff, an Olympic swimmer who received a gold medal in the Athens Olympic Games. The production company hired local contractors to build a massive indoor wave pool for production.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: The mishap in "The Guardian" where Randall loses his crew is loosely based on an actual U.S. Coast Guard aviation mishap in Alaska. The aircraft was an HH-3F Pelican (USCG variant of the Jolly Green Giant) instead of the HH-60J Jayhawk (USCG variant of the Blackhawk/Seahawk) pictured in the movie.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: In an alternate ending to "The Guardian", found on the DVD, Randall survives. As he unhooks and tries to fall, Jake again grabs him and vows not to let go. Instead of unstrapping his glove, Randall lets the cable pull them up and it breaks just as they get into the helicopter. This ending was added because some of the writers were worried that the original ending was too strong for viewers. Nonetheless, it was scrapped when Disney chairman, Dick Cook, applauded the original ending.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: The soundtrack of "The Guardian" was released by Hollywood Records on September 12, 2006. The soundtrack uses a variety of music genres, including R&B, country music, rock, soul and blues.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: "The Guardian" earned $18 million on its opening weekend (#2 at the box office behind "Open Season"), and almost $95 million worldwide by January 4, 2007.


title: The Guardian (2006 film)

text: At Rotten Tomatoes, "The Guardian" received a 37% "Rotten" rating, based on 149 reviews. The site's consensus states: "The Coast Guard gets its chance for a heroic movie tribute, but "The Guardian" does it no justice, borrowing cliche after cliche from other (and better) military branch movies." While Metacritic rates it a 53/100 based on 29 reviews. Stephen Hunter pans it in "The Washington Post", calling it "a good little film" for the first hour then it "begins to overload its frail reed of a structure with giant sloppages of cliches from other movies, some so bad it's almost comical", concluding that the movie "veers off into slobbery touchy-feeliness, and the tone becomes mock-religious, almost liturgical." Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" called it "dutiful but dull." A. O. Scott, in his review for "The New York Times", notes that participation by actual members of the Coast Guard "lends an air of authenticity" and concludes "... [i]t's not a great movie, but it's certainly one of the finest Coast Guard pictures you're likely to see anytime soon." In a "Variety" review, Joe Leydon says the movie is "overlong but [the] involving drama has obvious cross-generational appeal." Ed Blank in the "Pittsburgh Tribune-Review" acknowledges there is plenty to snipe at yet adds: "The Guardian" "regurgitates formulaic elements in a way that pays off repeatedly and potently."


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Abul A'la al-Maududi (; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist and scholar active in British India and later, following the partition, in Pakistan. Described by Wilfred Cantwell Smith as "the most systematic thinker of modern Islam", his numerous works, which "covered a range of disciplines such as Qur’anic exegesis, hadith, law, philosophy and history", were written in Urdu, but then translated into English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Burmese, Malayalam and many other languages. He sought to revive Islam, and to propagate what he understood to be "true Islam". He believed that Islam was essential for politics and that it was necessary to institute "sharia" and preserve Islamic culture similar to reign of the Rashidun and abandon immorality, from what he viewed as the evils of secularism, nationalism and socialism, which he understood to be the influence of Western imperialism.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: He was the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the then largest Islamic organisation in Asia. At the time of the Indian independence movement, Maududi and the Jamaat-e-Islami actively worked to oppose the partition of India. After it occurred, Maududi and his followers shifted their focus to politicizing Islam and generating support for making Pakistan an Islamic state.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: They are thought to have helped inspire General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq to introduce "Sharization" to Pakistan,


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: and to have been greatly strengthened by him after tens of thousands of members and sympathizers were given jobs in the judiciary and civil service during his administration.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: He was the first recipient of the Saudi Arabian King Faisal International Award for his service to Islam in 1979.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: He was the second person in history whose absentee funeral was observed in the Kaaba, after King Ashama ibn-Abjar. Maududi is acclaimed by the Jamaat-e-Islami, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Circle of North America, Hamas and other organizations.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Maududi was born in the city of Aurangabad in colonial India, then part of the princely state enclave of Hyderabad. He was the youngest of three sons of Ahmad Hasan, a lawyer by profession. His elder brother, Sayyid Abu’l Khayr Maududi (1899–1979), would later become an editor and journalist.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Although his father was only middle-class, he was the descendant of the Chishti; in fact his last name was derived from the first member of the Chishti Silsilah, i.e. Khawajah Syed Qutb ul-Din Maudood Chishti (d. 527 AH). He stated that his paternal family originally moved from Chicht, in modern-day Afghanistan, during the days of Sikandar Lodi (d. 1517), initially settling in the state of Haryana before moving to Delhi later on, and on his mother's side, his ancestor Mirza Tulak, a soldier of Turkic origin, moved into India from Transoxiana around the times of emperor Aurangzeb (d. 1707), while his maternal grandfather, Mirza Qurban Ali Baig Khan Salik (1816–1881), was a writer and poet in Delhi, a friend of the Urdu poet Ghalib.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Until he was nine, Maududi "received religious nurture at the hands of his father and from a variety of teachers employed by him." As his father wanted him to become a maulvi, this education consisted of learning Arabic, Persian, Islamic law and hadith. He also studied books of mantiq (logic). A precocious child, he translated Qasim Amin's "al-Marah al-jadidah" ("The New Woman"), a modernist and feminist work, from Arabic into Urdu at the age of 11. In the field of translation, years later, he also worked on some 3,500 pages from "Asfar", the major work of the 17th century Persian-Shi'a mystical thinker Mulla Sadra. His thought would influence Mawdudi, as "Sadra's notions of rejuvenation of the temporal order, and the necessity of the reign of Islamic law (the shari'ah) for the spiritual ascension of man, found an echo in Mawdudi's works."


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: When he was eleven, Maududi was admitted to eighth class directly in Madrasa Fawqaniyya Mashriqiyya (Oriental High School), Aurangabad, founded by Shibli Nomani, a modernist Islamic scholar trying to synthesize traditional Islamic scholarship with modern knowledge, and which awakened Maududi's long-lasting interest in philosophy (particularly from Thomas Arnold, who also taught the same subject to Muhammad Iqbal) as well as natural sciences, like mathematics, physics and chemistry. He then moved to a more traditionalist Darul Uloom in Hyderabad. Meanwhile, his father shifted to Bhopal – there Maududi befriended Niaz Fatehpuri, another modernist – where he suffered a severe paralysis attack and died leaving no property or money, forcing his son to abort his education. In 1919, by the time he was 16, and still a modernist in mindset, he moved to Delhi and read books by his distant relative, the reformist Sayyid Ahmad Khan. He also learned English and German to study, intensively, Western philosophy, sociology and history for full five years: he eventually came up to the conclusion that "ulama' in the past did not endeavour to discover the causes of Europe's rise, and he offered a long list of philosophers whose scholarship had made Europe a world power: Fichte, Hegel, Comte, Mill, Turgot, Adam Smith, Malthus, Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Darwin, Goethe, and Herder, among others. Comparing their contribution to that of Muslims, he concluded that the latter's did not reach even 1 per cent."


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Even if he began to get seriously involved in journalism from the late 1910s onwards, writing an article on electricity for "Ma’arif" in 1918 at the age of 15, and being appointed editor of the leading weekly Urdu newspaper "Taj" of Jabalpur in 1920 at the age of 17, he also resumed his studies as an autodidact in 1921, notably through the influence of some members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, by studying the Dars-e-Nizami and subjects such as adab (literature), mantiq (logic), and kalam (theology and philosophy.) Mawdudi got ijazahs (certificates and diplomas in traditional Islamic learning) but never called himself an 'alim in the formal sense because he found the Islamic scholars to be regressive, even though some Deobandi influence on him would remain:I do not have the prerogative to belong to the class of Ulema. I am a man of the middle cadre, who has imbibed something from both the systems of education, the new and the old; and has gathered my knowledge by traversing both paths. By virtue of my inner light, I conclude that neither the old school nor the new is totally in the right.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: From 1924 to 1927 Maududi was the editor of "al-Jamiah", the newspaper of the Jamiyat-i Ulama (an organization of Islamic clergy), a position of "extreme importance and influence."


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Always interested in independence from the British, Maududi lost faith in the Congress Party and its Muslim allies in the 1920s as the party developed an increasingly Hindu identity. He began to turn more towards Islam, and believed that Democracy could be a viable option for Muslims only if the majority of Indians were Muslim.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Maududi's works were written and published throughout his life, including influential works from 1933 to 1941. Maududi's most well known work, and widely considered his most important and influential work, is the Tafhim-ul-Quran (Urdu: تفہيم القرآن, romanized: Towards Understanding the Qur'an), a 6-volume translation and commentary of the Qur'an by Maududi which Maududi spent many years writing (which was begun in Muharram, 1361 A.H./February 1942).


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: In 1932 he joined another journal ("Tarjuman al-Quran") and from 1932 to 1937 he began to develop his political ideas, and turn towards the cause of Islamic revivalism and Islam as an ideology, as opposed to what he called "traditional and hereditary religion". The government of Hyderabad helped support the journal buying 300 subscriptions which it donated to libraries around India. Maududi was alarmed by the decline of Muslim ruled Hyderabad, the increasing secularism and lack of Purdah among Muslim women in Delhi.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: By 1937 he became in conflict with Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and its support for a pluralistic Indian society where the Jamiat hoped Muslims could "thrive ... without sacrificing their identity or interests."


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: In that year he also married Mahmudah Begum, a woman from an old Muslim family with "considerable financial resources". The family provide financial help and allowed him to devote himself to research and political action, but his wife had "liberated", modern ways, and at first rode a bicycle and did not observe purdah. She was given greater latitude by Maududi than were other Muslims.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: At this time he also began work on establishing an organization for "Da'wah" (propagation and preaching of Islam) that would be an alternative to both the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: At this time he decided to leave Hyderabad for Northwest India, closer to the Muslim political center of gravity in India. In 1938, after meeting the famous Muslim poet Muhammad Iqbal, Maududi moved to a piece of land in the village of Pathankot in the Punjab to oversee a "Waqf" (Islamic foundation) called "Daru'l-Islam".


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: His hope was to make it a "nerve center" of Islamic revival in India, an ideal religious community, providing leaders and the foundation for a genuine religious movement. He wrote to various Muslim luminaries invited them to join him there. The community, like Jamaat-i-Islami later, was composed of "rukn" (members), a "shura"' (a consultative council), and a "sadr" (head). After a dispute with the person who donated the land for the community over Maududi's anti-nationalist politics, Maududi quit the waqf and in 1939 moved the "Daru'l-Islam" with its membership from Pathankot to Lahore.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: In Lahore he was hired by Islamiyah College but was sacked after less than a year for his openly political lectures.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: In August 1941, Maududi founded Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in British India as a religious political movement to promote Islamic values and practices. His Mission was supported by Amin Ahsan Islahi, Muhammad Manzoor Naumani, Abul Hassan Ali Nudvi and Naeem Siddiqui.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Jamaat-e-Islami actively opposed the partition of India, with its leader Abul A'la Maududi arguing that concept violated the Islamic doctrine of the ummah. The Jamaat-e-Islami saw the partition as creating a temporal border that would divide Muslims from one another.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Maududi held that humans should accept God's sovereignty and adopt the divine code, which supersedes manmade laws, terming it a "theodemocracy", because its rule would be based on the entire Muslim community, not the "ulema" (Islamic scholars).


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: With the partition of India in 1947, the JI was split to follow the political boundaries of new countries carved out of British India. The organisation headed by Maududi became known as "Jamaat-i-Islami" Pakistan, and the remnant of JI in India as the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. Later JI parties were the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and autonomous groups in Indian Kashmir.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: With the founding of Pakistan, Maududi's career underwent a "fundamental change", being drawn more and more into politics, and spending less time on ideological and scholarly pursuits. Although his Jamaat-i Islami party never developed a mass following, it and Maududi did develop significant political influence. It played a "prominent part" in the agitation which brought down President Ayub Khan in 1969 and in the overthrow of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: His political activity, particularly in support of the creation of an Islamic state clashed with the government, (dominated for many years by a secular political class), and resulted in several arrests and periods of incarceration. The first was in 1948 when he and several other JI leaders were jailed after Maududi objected to the government's clandestine sponsorship of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir while professing to observe a ceasefire with India.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: In 1951 and again in 1956-7, the compromises involved in electoral politics led to a split in the party over what some members felt were a lowering of JI's moral standards. In 1951, the JI shura passed a resolution in support of the party withdrawing from politics, while Maududi argued for continued involvement. Maududi prevailed at an open party meeting in 1951, and several senior JI leaders resigned in protest, further strengthened Maududi's position and beginning the growth of a "cult of personality" around him." In 1957 Maududi again overruled the vote of the shura to withdraw from electoral politics.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: In 1953, he and the JI participated in a campaign against the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan. Anti-Ahmadi groups argued that the Ahmadiyya did not embrace Muhammad as the last prophet. Maududi as well as the traditionalist ulama of Pakistan wanted Ahmadi designated as non-Muslims, Ahmadis such as Muhammad Zafarullah Khan sacked from all high level government positions, and intermarriage between Ahmadis and other Muslims prohibited. The campaign generated riots in Lahore, leading to the deaths of at least 200 Ahmadis, and selective declaration of martial law.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: Maududi was arrested by the military deployment headed by Lieutenant General Azam Khan and sentenced to death for his part in the agitation. However, the anti-Ahmadi campaign enjoyed much popular support, and strong public pressure ultimately convinced the government to release him after two years of imprisonment. According to Vali Nasr, Maududi's unapologetic and impassive stance after being sentenced, ignoring advice to ask for clemency, had an "immense" effect on his supporters. It was seen as a "victory of Islam over un-Islam", proof of his leadership and staunch faith.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: In particular, Maududi advocated that the Pakistani state should be in accordance to Quran and sunnah, including in terms of conventional banking and rights to Muslims, minorities, Christians, and other religious sects such as the Ahmadiyya.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: An Islamic state is a Muslim state, but a Muslim state may not be an Islamic state unless and until the Constitution of the state is based on the Qur'an and Sunnah.


title: Abul A'la Maududi

text: The campaign shifted the focus of national politics towards Islamicity. The 1956 Constitution was adopted after accommodating many of the demands of the JI. Maududi endorsed the constitution and claimed it a victory for Islam.