Over the past few years, U of T Scarborough has made a concerted effort to foster an academic culture that recognizes the excellence of our faculty. Promotion to the rank of full professor recognizes faculty members’ outstanding scholarly achievements that have garnered worldwide recognition. Currently, there are 68 full professors at U of T Scarborough, 71 per cent of who were promoted since 2000—17 between 2000 and 2009, and 30 between 2010 and 2016. Now we are extending warm congratulations to another eight faculty members from Biological Sciences, Human Geography, Management, Philosophy and Sociology.
These promotions mark an especially proud moment as we’ve had the pleasure of watching many of these talented women and men develop from promising junior faculty into scholars of international impact and recognition. They are having a demonstrable impact in their disciplines and they excel as teachers in our classrooms. We see great things ahead for them and are pleased they have chosen U of T Scarborough as their academic home.
On behalf of our campus, I offer congratulations and gratitude to this talented and accomplished group of scholars and educators:
Marc Cadotte, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor Cadotte completed his PhD in 2006 at the University of Tennessee, and joined UTSC as an Assistant Professor in 2009. He received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2014. He has been recognized by a number of awards including the Ontario Early Researcher Award, Early Career Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, and the UTSC Research Recognition Award in 2015. He is currently the TD Limited Term Professor in Urban Forest Conservation and Biology.
Rene Harrison, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor Harrison completed her PhD at the University of Toronto in 2000, and joined UTSC as an Assistant Professor in 2003. She received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2008. Since the establishment of her independent lab in 2003, she has led an innovative research program in cell biology, recognized by national and provincial awards including the CIHR New Investigator Award and Ontario Early Researcher Award. Her research has also been recognized with the Principal’s Research Award at UTSC (2008) and the inaugural 2016 Honoured Alumni of the Year Award from the University of Manitoba.
Benjamin Hellie, Department of Philosophy
Professor Hellie completed his PhD at Princeton University in 2001 and joined UTSC in 2005 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. His research covers a wide range of areas in analytic philosophy including philosophy of mind, epistemology, and metaphysics. Professor Hellie has awarded a Visiting Fellowship to the Centre for Consciousness of the Australian National University in 2007.
Ping-Chun Hsiung, Department of Sociology
Professor Hsiung completed her PhD from the University of California Los Angeles in 1991 and joined the faculty of the Department of Social Sciences immediately after. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1996. Her research focuses on social changes and gender relations in Chinese societies, and critical qualitative research. She has received several research grants from the University of Toronto and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to advance the study of family relations and gender roles in Chinese societies, and feminist theories and international gender politics, among other topics.
Thembela Kepe, Department of Human Geography
Professor Kepe completed his PhD from the University of Western Cape, Republic of South Africa in 2002 and was first appointed to a joint position in Geography and Development Studies at the University of Toronto in 2006. He was granted tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2011 in the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Professor Kepe’s research focuses on development studies, land rights, people-environment interactions, and the politics of development in southern Africa. He has held several notable visiting academic appointments at various institutions, including Rhodes University, South Africa, Norwegian University of Life Sciences and the University of Oslo.
Andrew Mason, Department of Biological Sciences
Professor Mason completed his PhD at University of Toronto in 1994 and has been a member of the faculty at University of Toronto Scarborough since 2000 when he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Life Sciences. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006. His research aims to understand the mechanisms by which the nervous system controls ongoing activity and how these mechanisms relate to behavioral adaptation. He was the 2006 recipient of the UTSC’s Principal’s Research Excellence Award.
Julie McCarthy, Department of Management
Professor McCarthy completed her PhD at the University of Western Ontario in 2003 and joined the Department of Management immediately after as an Assistant Professor in Organizational Behaviour. She was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2010. Her research encompasses issues in the realm of individual differences and the workplace, and includes studies on applicant reactions to personnel selection techniques; and, employee reactions to the workplace. Her work has received a considerable amount of media attention, and she was named the Canadian Science Leadership Program Fellow in 2014 and received the University of Toronto Excellence Award in 2012. In the corporate sector, Professor McCarthy has developed training programs, performance management systems and personnel selection tools on behalf public and private corporations.
Jessica Wilson, Department of Philosophy
Professor Wilson completed her PhD from Cornell University in 2001 and joined UTSC in 2005 as an Assistant Professor. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. Her research interests are in both the metaphysics of science and general metaphysics. Most recently she has been working on providing a metaphysical account of nonlinear emergence in terms of the scientific notion of a degree of freedom. Professor Wilson was the co-recipient of the prestigious Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution in 2014.
Two new academic administrative appointments to the Dean’s Office have been enthusiastically welcomed by the campus community. Professor Maydianne Andrade has taken on a new position, as Vice-Dean Faculty Affairs and Equity, with a strong focus on faculty mentorship and recognition, increasing diversity and fostering a climate in which all can flourish. Professor Mary Silcox is Vice-Dean Graduate, with a strong focus on graduate program development and overseeing services for U of T Scarborough’s growing graduate student population.
Academic Board has approved a new graduate program, the Masters of Accounting & Finance. This will be the fifth graduate program at U of T Scarborough, the first for the Department of Management, and the first non-science graduate program on campus. The program was confirmed by the Executive Committee on June 13 and will be the Cadillac version of such programs, enthusiastically endorsed by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario, which now requires graduate training. The U of T Scarborough program will give academic credentials both for accounting and chartered financial analysts. The first intake of 25 students is planned for May 2018.
Pending the final step of Governing Council approval on June 27, U of T Scarborough will also be announcing the establishment of a new EDU-B, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society. This new stand-alone unit, led by a Director, gives our Health Studies programs their own independent identity. The Centre will have eight faculty and 733 students in their programs. This year, the centre also will be introducing a new program in Health Humanities—the first of its kind in Canada.
In addition to Health Humanities, the Minor in Natural Sciences and Environmental Management was approved this year. Finally, the Major in Media Studies was renamed the Major in Media, Journalism and Digital Cultures, and will now offer two streams: Media Studies and Journalism Studies.
This has been a busy year, and we’ve set a number of benchmarks along the way.
The 2017/18 academic year promises to continue on this trend, in particular as we respond to the calls to action of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. It’s going to be a year that I am very excited about and I’m sure you will be, too.