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Dear OISE Community,

I am delighted to announce the appointment of a new faculty member following the conclusion of our search in the area of Access & Equity in Student Transitions, and to recognize the achievement of a number of colleagues who have recently been awarded tenure and/or promotion. I would like to thank the members of the search committee, tenure committees, and promotion committees, as well as their support staff, for the expertise and hard work they contributed to these important processes.

New Faculty Appointment: Access & Equity in Student Transitions

Dr. Maíra Mendes begins a tenure stream position at the rank of Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education on February 1, 2024. Dr. Mendes earned a PhD in Education from the State University of Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and has been a faculty member at the State University of Santa Cruz, Brazil since 2014. During 2022-23, she was a Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Education of the University of Cambridge. Dr. Mendes’ research examines obstacles faced by Black and Indigenous students, female students, and lower socioeconomic status students to access higher education, particularly in the sciences. She is Principal Investigator of the GRAPEUNI Research Group, leading a project that aims to identify the reasons why such students drop out of undergraduate programs in order to propose changes to curricular and retention practices to foster a more accessible and inclusive university. Her research and pedagogy are grounded in public engagement, in particular her role as co-founder and Director of Rede Emancipa, a grassroots movement to democratize access to higher education in Brazil. Dr. Mendes’ publications include 10 peer-reviewed journal articles and 12 book chapters, and her work has been funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, as well as the State University of Santa Cruz. She has taught and lectured on science and biology education, as well as on access, admission, retention, dropout issues, and affirmative action in higher education.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Mendes on her appointment and in welcoming this outstanding new colleague to OISE!

Tenure & Promotion to Associate Professor

Dr. Arlo Kempf of the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning has been awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Kempf’s research interests include anti-racism and anticolonialism in K-12 and teacher education; (critical) whiteness and white supremacy in education; teachers’ work and professional lives in critical perspective; and critical perspectives on neoliberalism in education. He teaches in the areas of race and equity in education. Dr. Kempf is co-editor (with Sandra Styres) of Troubling Reconciliation in Education: Critical Perspectives (University of Alberta Press, 2022).

Dr. Emmanuelle Le Pichon-Vorstman of the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning has been awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Le Pichon-Vorstman’s research interests include educational linguistics, linguistic diversity, education rights of linguistic minorities, metacognition, migration, and mobilities as well as inclusive education. She conducts research studies on issues related to multilingual education, particularly on the education of newly arrived migrant students in Europe and indigenous pupils in Suriname. Dr. Le Pichon-Vorstman is the co-editor (with G. Prasad and N. Auger) of Multilingualism and Education: Researchers’ Pathways and Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2022). 

Dr. Fikile Nxumalo of the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning has been awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Nxumalo’s scholarship focuses on reconceptualizing place-based and environmental education within current times of ecological precarity. This scholarship is rooted in insights from Indigenous knowledges and Black feminist geographies. Her book, Decolonizing Place in Early Childhood Education (Routledge, 2019) examines the entanglements of place, environmental education, childhood, race, and settler colonialism in early learning contexts. 

Promotion to Full Professor / Full Professor, Teaching Stream

Dr. Diane Farmer of the Department of Social Justice Education has been promoted to the rank of Professor, effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Farmer is a member of the Centre de Recherche en Education Franco-Ontarienne and a member of the international research network on youth, l'Observatoire Jeunes et Société. Her research is in the area of Francophone minority studies. Dr. Farmer teaches courses in sociology of education and in Francophone minority studies. 

Dr. Cathy Marks Krpan of the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning has been promoted to the rank of Professor, Teaching Stream, effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Marks Krpan teaches in the area of mathematics education. An award-winning educator and author, her work is used in classrooms across Canada and internationally. Dr. Marks Krpan presents to educators, district leaders and parents in North America, Asia, and Europe on effective ways to engage students in learning mathematics. She is the 2021 recipient of Fields Institute's Margaret Sinclair Memorial award, recognizing innovation and excellence in mathematics education.

Dr. Eve Tuck of the Department of Social Justice Education has been promoted to the rank of Professor, effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Tuck holds the Canada Research Chair of Indigenous Methodologies with Youth and Communities. Dr. Tuck's globally recognized work is on urban education and Indigenous studies. She works with students who engage Indigenous theories and research, and who take up settler colonialism, antiblackness, the politics of research, and/or theories of change. Dr. Tuck is Unangax̂ and is an enrolled member of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, Alaska.

Hon. Marvin Zuker of the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education has been promoted to the rank of Professor, effective July 1, 2023. The Honourable Marvin Zuker served as a full-time Justice in the Ontario Court of Justice from 1978 to 2016. His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of Educational Law, Criminal and Family Law. Professor Zuker is the author and co-author of many books and articles including The Law is NOT for Women with June Callwood (1976) and The Law is NOT for Kids with Ned Lecic (second edition 2023). He is a member of a number editorial boards including the Education @ Law Journal (Thomson Reuters) and NacuaNet (NACUA). 

Please join me in congratulating all of these exceptional faculty members on their well-deserved achievement! 

Warm regards,

Erica

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ERICA N. WALKER

Professor and Dean