Promoting our world leaders
John ApSimon, Dean, Faculty of Public Affairs
The ways in which our faculty demonstrates its leadership are diverse and remarkable.
When Valerie Percival and Chantal Blouin from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs get major, successive grants from the Rockefeller Foundation for their research on global health diplomacy, we are leading the world. When journalism professor Allan Thompson receives a medal from the governor-general for his inspiring work in Rwanda, we are there, too. When social work professor Allan Moscovitch and his colleagues build links with the University of Hargeisa in Somaliland, we lead, with our local partners, in reconstruction and social justice.
When the Centre for Monetary and Financial Economics organizes a leading edge conference on lessons from the recent financial crisis, we lead an important public policy file for central banks and departments of finance. When Canada Research Chair Sheryl Hamilton wins the Canadian Law and Society book prize, and with her colleagues launches the Canadian Initiative in Law, Culture and Humanities, we lead a dynamic, emerging field of study. And when political science professor Peter Andree chairs the university-wide Community-Engaged Pedagogy Committee, we are leading the university’s engagement with the Ottawa region.
As impressive as these and scores of other achievements by our faculty, students and staff are, we must, and can, do more. The Faculty of Public Affairs needs to be even more visible than it already is. To that end, my office is supporting a series of meetings to project our scholars and their ideas into both the federal and provincial governments. We are increasingly producing and posting video clips of our activities for downloading by other academics, policy-makers, business and civil society leaders, and the general public.
It will be my great pleasure to serve as interim dean for a second year. In the coming months, I very much look forward to advancing the work and raising the profile of the faculty. We invite all stakeholders in the Faculty of Public Affairs, including our thousands of alumni, to join in this effort.
John ApSimon,
Interim dean, Faculty of Public Affairs