From: Melanie Woodin, Dean, Faculty of Arts & Science
Date: June 6, 2022
Re: Re-appointment of Bonnie McElhinny as Principal of New College

I am pleased to announce that the Agenda Committee of Academic Board has approved the re-appointment of Professor Bonnie McElhinny as Principal of New College, effective July 1, 2023 until June 30, 2024.

Professor Bonnie McElhinny received her PhD in Linguistics from Stanford University in 1993. After a term as a Fulbright Professor at the University of Helsinki and then eighteen months as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Washington University, Professor McElhinny joined the University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology in 1995. In 2001, she was awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. In 2002, she was cross-appointed to the Women and Gender Studies Institute. In 2020, she was promoted to the rank of Professor.

Dr. McElhinny’s books include Words, Worlds and Material Girls, Filipinos in Canada (edited with Roland Coloma, Ethel Tungohan, J.P. Catungal and Lisa Davidson) and, most recently, Language, Capitalism, Colonialism:  Toward a Critical History (with Monica Heller).  She is also the author of over 60 articles and chapters, and is the founding editor of Gender and Language.

She regularly teaches courses on unsettling settler colonialism, living on the water in Toronto, and water and social justice. She directs Water Allies @ New College (waterallies.com), an initiative initially funded with an FAS ATLAS (Advanced Teaching and Learning in Arts and Science) Grant.

She is a recipient of the June Larkin Teaching Award, and her first year course, Living on the Water in Toronto, was recognized in 2016 as one of the 14 most innovative teaching initiatives in all faculties, on all 3 campuses, at the University of Toronto, and featured in Re:Think:  Navigation and transformation in today’s learning landscape. 

Recent contributions to the university and faculty include service on the FAS Working Group on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion; the FAS Committee on Indigeneity, Research and Learning; the Social Procurement Advisory Group; and Council of First Entry Deans.

Professor McElhinny is the former Director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute (2008-2014) and has served as Principal of New College since July 1, 2017.

Please join me in congratulating Professor McElhinny on her re-appointment.