[PDADC-L] Professor Donald Ainslie Appointed Principal, University College

PDAD&C #43, 2010-11

Memorandum

TO: University College Staff, Students, and Alumni
Principals, Deans, Academic Directors and Chairs

FROM: Cheryl Misak, Vice-President and Provost

DATE: January 18, 2011

RE: Professor Donald Ainslie Appointed Principal, University College

I am very pleased to announce that the Agenda Committee of the Academic Board has approved the appointment of Professor Donald Ainslie as Principal of University College from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2016.

Professor Ainslie joined the then Division of Humanities, Erindale College in 1996. Since 2003, he has served as Chair of both the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Science and the tri-campus graduate Department of Philosophy, leading an impressive run of faculty hires, as well as imaginative undergraduate and graduate curriculum initiatives. For example, the Socrates Project, which gives senior undergraduates the opportunity to learn philosophy by teaching philosophy, garnered a Northrop Frye Award in 2009.

Professor Ainslie received his B.S.c. (Hon.), Specialist in Mathematics, from Queen's University in 1988 and his M.A. (Program in Medical Ethics, Department of History and Philosophy of Science) and PhD (Department of Philosophy) from the University of Pittsburgh in 1996. He was a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Philosophy at Stanford University in 2008-09.

From 2001 to 2003 he was the Coordinator of the University of Toronto's Undergraduate Bioethics Program. He has also served on a number of Faculty of Arts & Science committees including the Budget Committee (2009 - present), the Writing Committee (2007-present), and the Curriculum Renewal Steering Committee (2007-08), where he helped to create the Writing Instruction for TAs (WIT) Program. He has also led Faculty task forces on performance indicators in the humanities (HOPI, 2005-7) and on ethics education across the curriculum (2010-present).

Professor Ainslie's two main areas of research focus are the History of Modern Philosophy and Bioethics. He is finishing a book for Oxford University Press titled Hume's Bundle: Scepticism and Self-Understanding in the Treatise.