Appointment of Professor Bonnie McElhinny as Principal of New College (PDAD&C #110)

We are delighted to announce that the Agenda Committee of Academic Board has approved the appointment of Professor Bonnie McElhinny as the Principal of New College from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2022.

Professor McElhinny holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh (B.A., 1987), Johns Hopkins University (M.A., 1991), and Stanford University (M.A., 1992; Ph.D., 1993). She was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Helsinki (1993) and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Cultural Studies at Washington University in St. Louis (1994-1995). Professor McElhinny joined the University of Toronto in 1995 and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and in the Women and Gender Studies Institute (WGSI).

Professor McElhinny is an accomplished researcher and teacher. She is the recipient of multiple University of Toronto Dean’s Excellence Awards in the Faculty of Arts & Science and research awards from SSHRC and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. She has undertaken research projects on gender, race, and policing in the United States, work cooperatives in Silicon Valley, American colonial interventions into the training of health care workers, immigrant healthcare workers in indigenous communities, and decolonizing water governance. She has published over 40 articles and chapters; her books include Words, Worlds and Material Girls (2007), and Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility (2012, co-edited with Roland Coloma, Ethel Tungohan, J.P. Catungal, and Lisa Davidson). Her latest book, Language, Capitalism, Colonialism, Capitalism: Toward a Critical History (co-authored with Monica Heller), is forthcoming this fall.

Professor McElhinny was named a recipient of the 2017-18 June Larkin Award for Pedagogical Development for her current work on developing a Great Lakes curriculum, “Something in the Water: Watershed Pedagogies and Teaching about Water in Toronto”. She also received an Advanced Teaching and Learning in Arts and Science (ATLAS) grant for a project called “Great Lakes Waterworks” for developing a cluster of courses on water, in conversation with multiple community partners committed to water justice, social justice, and indigenous rights, as well as multiple small grants from the Centre for Community Partnerships for building these relationships. She has built a collaborative relationship with the University of Hawai`i, Mānoa through the FAS International Course Module Program for student research on, and experience with, civic engagement, sustainability and indigenous sovereignty.

Professor McElhinny has an impressive record of service, both internal and external to the University. At U of T, she served as the Director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute (WGSI) from 2008 to 2014, and as the Graduate Coordinator in both Anthropology and WGSI (2013-14). In these roles she supported the launch of the new PhD in Women and Gender Studies. She has also served as a member of the New College Budget, Planning, and Priority Committee (2010-13); a member of the New College Advisory Committee for the Selection of a Vice-Principal (2012-13); and a member of the New College Pedagogy Group. She is a founding co-editor of the journal Gender and Language, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Sociolinguistics. She serves on the editorial boards of six other international and transnational journals and presses, for work in anthropology, gender, and language.

In addition to her understanding of University administration, Professor McElhinny brings a unique familiarity with New College – its people and its programs – and the greater role of this distinctive College within the University. Professor McElhinny speaks passionately about building on themes of social justice, equity, inclusion, and well-being, as well as land, water, and food equity that are woven through the New College community and programs.

Please join us in congratulating Professor McElhinny on this appointment.