Home > Committees

COMMITTEES & WORKING GROUPS
2011-2012

POLICY/ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Broadly advisory to the chairs on matters including intellectual life in the department, working groups, opportunities and initiatives, appointments, retention, strategic  complement planning and reviews, curricula, etc. – considers and presents a departmental constitution for discussion.

• Mills, Kenneth (Chair)
• Bergen, Doris
• Bohaker, Heidi
• Chin, Carol
• Hawkins, Sean
• Kazal, Russell
• Terpstra, Nicholas
• Viola, Lynne (leave TBD)
  (for 2011-12) Appointments Sub-Committee
  (for 2011-12) Workload Policy Sub-Committee
• Bartlett, Kenneth
• Jenkins, Jennifer (Co-Chair)
• Mills, Kenneth (Co-Chair)

WEBTHINKING INITIATIVE

• Price, Matthew (Chair)
• Mills, Kenneth
• Mills, Sean

SALARY COMMITTEE

Advises the chairs in determining performance of faculty for annual PTR, reviews annual activity reports.

• Mills, Kenneth (Chair)
• Bergen, Doris
• Chin, Carol
• Fujitani, Takashi
• Kazal, Russell
• Penfold, Steve
• Wróbel, Piotr

PROMOTIONS COMMITTEE

Advises the chairs in determining recommendations for promotion to full professor; reviews CVs of associate professors, works with selected faculty members to prepare promotion dossiers for the Faculty promotions committee, monitors and works  to prepare and advise those clearly upcoming for promotion.

• Mills, Kenneth (Chair)
• Bergen, Doris
• Goering, Joseph
• Iacovetta, Franca
• Pruessen, Ron

INTELLECTUAL COMMUNITY WORKING GROUP

Working group charged with stimulating intellectual life in the department and beyond – advises the chairs on departmentally-sponsored series, identifies and liaises with faculty members who convene or support other series or who invite speakers, with an eye to converge and co-support whenever satisfying and possible; explores workshop initiatives; explores possible speakers across fields, methods, geographies, periods; entertains thematic concentrations; generates ideas and proposals for discussion.
~creates a regular electronic newsletter and events listing for the department and its vast intellectual community, very much including emeriti, alumni and interested parties in the public realm – liaises with other complementary scholars and units across the university, creating a centre of information for “what’s going on”, and avoiding conflicts with other large events, in as much as it is possible.
~ thinks about improved uses of our “space” in the department—converges with Advancement, Nominations & Awards – converges with Research.

• Bergen, Doris (Chair)
• Fujitani, Takashi
• Magocsi, Robert
• Mills, Sean
• Noel, Jan
• Rothman, Natalie
• Tavakoli-Targhi, Mohamad

RESEARCH COMMITTEE

A mentoring, preparing and encouraging body for faculty, appropriately supporting their research and profiles – surveys the university, local, regional, national and international research landscapes for a variety of appropriate research opportunities for members of our community; prepares an accessible, revisable and departmental database of research opportunities (with contact info, deadlines, etc) for the use of departmental members; revises the same as needed; initiates and convenes timely information, review and feedback sessions for emerging applications, and mentoring sessions with select groups and/or individuals with a singular goal of promoting excellent applications at all levels, especially for opportunities such as SSHRC, MCRIs, Connaught, Jackman Humanities Institute, Jackman Programme in the Arts, the Canadian Fund for Innovation (CFI), different foundations that expect to fund humanities research initiatives, and also much more; advises the chairs on all applications underway, emerging and rewarded; reviews any SIG applications for determination of awards.
~converges with Nominations & Awards Committee when needed
connverges with Graduate Programme and Appeals when needed, and particularly with respect to graduate research in our department
~promoting the department and its members’ various kinds of work at the CHA, AHA, etc.

• Mills, Kenneth (Chair)
• Eyal, Yonatan
• Nelson, William
• Tran, Nhung                 

ADVANCEMENT, NOMINATIONS & AWARDS COMMITTEE

Body convened to identify, explore and pursue fund-raising and other related “development” opportunities – advises the chair and initiates focused and regular meetings with Ms Nadina Jamison and others in the directorship of the Office of Advancement in the Faculty of Arts and Science and/or University, as appropriate. Seeks advice from those gifted and with know-how in these pursuits wherever they are found.  Looks to initiate fruitful conversations with History-motivated alumni, individuals in the public sector, and organizations that may lead to Advancement’s eager participation on behalf of History and other students.  From endowed series, new or existing, to research bursaries, to named professorships, to new initiatives, etc. prepares a prioritized “case list” to be discussed with chairs and presented for Advancement each September and revisits and revises the same each January
~the body is also devoted to recognizing – and attempting to have recognized more widely – extraordinary colleagues in our midst or cross-disciplinary company; liaises with A&S to put forward colleagues, and also to survey the university, local, regional, national and international landscapes for opportunities to acknowledge and promote in the department:  everything from research fellowships, teaching awards (UofT and within oganisations such as the CHA and AHA, etc) through University Professorships to Honorary Degrees.
~body of support responsible for drafting time-sensitive nomination letters and proposals, coordinating applications and letters of support, liaising with department chairs, deans, research services, etc., as appropriate.
~converges with the Research Committee and the Intellectual Community Working Group

• Penslar, Derek (Chair)
• Bartlett, Kenneth
• Birla, Ritu
• Wittmann, Rebecca

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMME

Body to set up, discuss and implement the undergraduate curriculum, its ongoing renewal and any changes; prepares and presents annual course offerings for departmental approval (each Fall); discusses and presents wider issues

• Chin, Carol (Chair)
• Goering, Joseph
• Mori, Jennifer
• Tran, Nhung

PEDAGOGY SUB-COMMITTEE

A sub-committe emerging in 2009-10 to focus upon curricluar development. Members are drawn from "Undergraduate Programme" in the first instance, but may include otheres from within the Department at large.

• Hawkins, Sean (Chair and First-Year Coordinator)
• Chin, Carol
• TBD                     

TRANSFER CREDITS and STUDY ABROAD

• Chin, Carol

GRADUATE ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE

Committee which, working closely with Graduate Coordinator and administrators, reviews graduate applications and determines offers of admission; and is to liaise early and often with prospective faculty advisors about responding to pre-application inquiries, messages of interest and campus visits, and to assist the Graduate Coordinator in providing faculty with an early heads-up about incoming students  -- with the goals of showcasing our and Toronto's strengths of enhancing the recruitment of admitted students.

• Terpstra, Nicholas (Chair) (Retallack, James)
• Chen, Li
• Goering, Joseph
• Jenkins, Jennifer
• Johnson, Robert
• Kazal, Russell
• Musisi, Nakanyike
• Newton, Melanie
• Penslar, Derek
• Pruessen, Ron
• Wróbel, Piotr

GRADUATE PROGRAMME COMMITTEE

Discusses and implements graduate curriculum and any changes, presenting these and annual course offerings for departmental approval each Fall.  Body for examining and enhancing the department’s self-presentation and appeal to prospective graduate applicants, including sustained attention to how the website shows the department, the talents and ranges of individual faculty, its activities, and even a few of the intellectual pathways and methodological and thematic convergences through our community; also responsible for discussion and presentation of all other graduate business to the department.
~body also handles any graduate student appeals undertaken according to University policy, providing a level between individual students and their instructors, on the one hand, and the School of Graduate Studies, on the other.

• Kazal, Russell (Chair)
• Cochelin, Isabelle
• Jenkins, Jennifer
• Kasturi, Malavika
• Kwee, Hui Kian
• Radforth, Ian
• Smith, Alison

GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS SUB-COMMITTEE

Graduate Fellowships (sub-committee of Graduate Programme) a body advising the Associate Chair, Graduate in the awarding of internal fellowships; also doing for graduate students what the Research Committee does for faculty -- surveying the various landscapes for likely research and fellowship opportunities, convening mentoring and information sessions, reviewing applications and proposals and offering constructive feedback with the ultimate aim of assisting graduate students in the preparation of cover letters, CVs and dossiers for external fellowships
~converge with Graduate Programme.

• Kazal, Russell (Chair)
• Everett, Nicholas
• Lahusen, Thomas
• MacDowell, Laurel
• Silano, Giulio (Meyerson, Mark)

GRADUATE PLACEMENT SUB-COMMITTEE

Body assisting and advising graduate students in preparing for job applications and “the job market”, from entry into the programme to the job search process, including the reality of the AHA general meeting and campus visits.
~converges with Graduate Programme, and Graduate Fellowships
~converges with Research Committee on matter of a “dissertation writer’s workshop” to follow principal comps period
~converges with Intellectual Community (events).

• Cohen, Paul (Co-Chair)
• Wittmann, Rebecca (Co-Chair)
• Bender, Daniel
• Bergen, Doris
• Hanssen, Jens
• Kazall, Russell
• Penfold, Steve
• Sharma, Jayeeta