Alison Mountz joins UTSC as AVPRI-SIP July 1st
Irena Creed, Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation at University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Alison Mountz to the position of Associate Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation, Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships (AVPRI-SIP), effective July 1, 2023.
Professor Mountz will join UTSC’s department of human geography from her current position as Professor of Geography, Laurier Research Chair in Global Migration, and Director of Haven: the asylum lab at Wilfrid Laurier University. A member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada and a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, she has previously held a Canada Research Chair in global migration and the William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professorship of Canadian Studies at Harvard University.
Professor Mountz’s research explores how people access asylum, survive detention, resist war, and create safe havens. SSHRC is funding her current research, Asylum’s Afterlives, about the search for asylum and the resettlement in North America of refugees from remote Pacific islands. Her book The Death of Asylum won the 2020 Globe Award for advancing public understanding of geography. Seeking Asylum received the 2010 Meridian Award from the American Association of Geographers for outstanding scholarly work. Her collaboration with filmmaker Lisa Molomot resulted in the feature-length documentary SAFE HAVEN (2020), about two generations of American war resisters who have migrated to Canada.
“This is an exciting time. UTSC is involved in many partnerships, such as EaRTH District and SAMIH, and hosting globally significant strategic initiatives,” says Irena Creed. “Alison brings a wealth of experience in building effective and collaborative partnerships, and I know she will contribute a great deal to our campus.”
Professor Mountz states, “I look forward to working alongside U of T Scarborough colleagues, staff, students, and community members to advance the outstanding research and foundational relationships between campus and local and global communities.”
The position of AVPRI–SIP will be responsible for identifying and helping to lead a set of priority research collaborations that bring together tri-campus colleagues and local, regional, national, and international partners from various sectors. It will help advance UTSC’s profile as a centre of excellence for research partnerships and knowledge mobilization. The AVPRI-SIP will engage with UTSC and tri-campus academic and administrative units to provides leadership for strategic research and innovation initiatives at UTSC. It will also oversee the Clusters of Scholarly Prominence Program, facilitate and sustain multidisciplinary strategic research networks with tri-campus representation, and help to ensure that the existing and emerging strengths of UTSC’s research and innovation community reach their full potential and impact.