Asian Institute

Professor Joseph Wong has been appointed the University of Toronto’s interim vice-president, international, effective July 1. The appointment is for a one-year term or until a permanent appointment is made.

As the university’s first-ever associate vice-president and vice-provost, international student experience, Wong opened up new avenues to international learning opportunities for U of T students.

The number of undergraduate students who travelled abroad for their studies or research was on track to hit 26 per cent this year before COVID-19 struck – up from 14 per cent in 2016.

“If we have a quarter of our undergraduate students participating in international learning opportunities, that means it’s becoming part of the core value proposition of being at the University of Toronto,” said Wong, a professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Ralph and Roz Halbert Professor of Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

“It’s no longer a nice-to-have or luxury on the side; it’s part of the expectation any incoming student would have of their experience. I think that’s transformational.”

As interim vice-president, international, Wong will be taking over from University Professor Ted Sargent, who was named U of T’s new vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

President Meric Gertler announced Wong’s appointment on Thursday following approval by U of T’s Governing Council. He said Wong was highly regarded among those consulted on the potential appointment.

“His success in promoting the wider uptake of international experiences amongst our students, as well as the incorporation of internationalization more broadly within our undergraduate programs, were singled out as particularly noteworthy achievements,” President Gertler said.

Wong told U of T News one of his priorities in his new role will be to grow students’ opportunities for global engagement while the pandemic restrictions remain in place and to ensure that U of T is ready to hit the ground running as soon as international travel is once again safe.

“If COVID has taught us anything, it’s that global engagement is more important than ever,” said Wong. “Those institutions and countries that have become more inward looking are facing bigger challenges.

“When we emerge into the new normal, we want to be sure that U of T is in full stride and that we’re not restarting our international engagement and internationalization strategy from a standstill.”

In one of his own seminars, Wong is planning to set up an online dialogue between his students in the Munk One program and a class at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico. “It’s an opportunity for our students to dig deep, work together, collaborate, discuss and debate with students in Mexico,” around issues of poverty, inequality and trust in governance during the COVID-19 era,” he said.

In addition to teaching, Wong is a faculty mentor and the founder of the Reach Project, a student-driven, multi-disciplinary research initiative that has taken students to all corners of the world for in-depth looks at innovative development programs that are reaching the world’s most marginalized people. Over the last several years, Reach student researchers have gone to Ethiopia to study a program to alleviate food insecurity, Brazil to investigate a conditional cash transfer program and Mongolia to study access to solar energy.

Earlier this year, Reach received additional support from the Mastercard Impact Fund to form the Reach Alliance and expand to six other universities by 2022.

Wong also helped introduce new academic designations that encourage students to acquire the international experience necessary to tackle some of the world’s greatest global challenges. Students can work toward a Global Scholar certification and designation on their transcript by taking a curated series of courses offered by their program or faculty. And they can obtain a Global Citizen designation on their co-curricular record through participating in programs and activities that foster a global outlook and engagement, or that celebrate inclusivity and equity and other core competencies.

Before taking on his current position, Wong was director of the Munk School’s Asian Institute from 2005 to 2014. He’s the author of several books and has worked with international organizations such as the World Bank and United Nations, and has advised governments on matters of public policy.

“I’m very excited about this [appointment], as I was about the assistant vice-president role, because internationalization is one of the core pillars of President Meric Gertler’s own vision of the university – so it’s a terrific opportunity to be working with and collaborating very closely not just with the president, but with partners across the university,” Wong said.

Trump, zombies and dictators: impressions from a Burmese internship

lavende4 — Wed, 18 May 2016 15:10:54 +0000

Trump, zombies and dictators: impressions from a Burmese internship lavende4 Wed, 05/18/2016 - 11:10

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A park in Burma's capital city, Naypyidaw (Photo by lirneasia via flickr)

Terry Lavender

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Terry Lavender

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Our Community

Faculty of Arts & Science

Asian Institute

Undergraduate Education

Global

International

Internships

“The world has perished in the zombie apocalypse except for Donald Trump and 10 Burmese dictators. Together they conspire to build an extravagant South East Asian paradise with lavish hotels and 20 lane highways for just the 11 of them: the end result is Burma’s capital, Naypyidaw.”

So begins University of Toronto student Naveeda Hussain’s blog post on her recent experiences in Burma, where she served as a political intern at the Canadian embassy and witnessed firsthand the aftermath of that country’s return to civilian rule after years of military dictatorship. In her post on the student blog of the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs, Hussain describes not only her impressions of the purpose-built Burmese capital (“the eeriest, most deserted place I have ever been”) but her thoughts on Burma’s difficult road ahead as it transitions to democracy (“After 50 years of repression, how does a country institute a system that it essentially has never known?”)

Upon her return from Burma (also known as Myanmar), Hussain, a student in the Peace, Conflict and Justice program at the Trudeau Centre in the Faculty of Arts and Science, discussed her experiences with U of T News reporter Terry Lavender.

How did the internship at the Canadian embassy in Burma come about?

My family is from India but my grandparents grew up in Burma so I have some ties to the country. I grew up eating Burmese food, for one thing! One day at the Robarts Library I ran into a friend of mine who was in the Masters of Global Affairs program at the Munk School. I mentioned I had just finished a long research paper about Burma and he told me about a posting on the MGA website about an internship at the Canadian embassy there. It was the day after the deadline, but he urged me to go for it, so I stayed up until 6 a.m. filling out the application and I got the position.

Did you have to prepare for the internship?

No. It was a very laid-back kind of process. The ambassador emailed me a few weeks before I was to arrive in the country to tell me the first few things I would be working on, but there was no extensive reading material or anything. I already had a pretty solid background on the history of the country.

Naveeda Hussain (left) takes notes as Canadian ambassador Mark McDowell meets with Burmese Lower House Speaker U Win Myint (right)

What was the mood of the Burmese people?

After so long under the military dictatorship, people were cautiously optimistic, but they were also wary because of what had happened in the past [when the military refused to relinquish power after elections in 1990]. So, because of that, they didn’t want to get their hopes up, only to have that optimism shattered.

How about you? Are you hopeful for Burma’s future?

Yes. There’s a lot to be hopeful about, but at the same time, Burma faces huge challenges. For example, 25 percent of the seats in parliament are reserved for the military so a big challenge is going to be developing the trust of the military. How are they going to get to the point where the military feels comfortable enough to step away from the public sphere?

You have one more year to go in the Peace, Conflict and Justice program. What do you plan to do after you finish your degree?

Being in Burma over the last four months I’ve really come to value work experience a lot more. So before jumping into further studies I want to expand on that and gain some more work experience. After that, I think either a Master’s in public policy and administration or law school or both. My thesis research in Burma was about federalism and the peace process so policy and the constitution are kind of intertwined, as far as I’m concerned.

Read more about Naveeda Hussain’s insights on Burma at http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/ai/student-blog/a-post-apocalyptic-capital-watching-a-democracy-take-its-first-steps/

Korea, Centre for the Study of

sgupta — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 20:47:19 +0000

Korea, Centre for the Study of sgupta Thu, 01/07/2016 - 15:47

URL

https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/ai/centre-study-korea

Asian Institute

Joseph Wong named U of T’s interim vice-president, international

Trump, zombies and dictators: impressions from a Burmese internship

Naveeda Hussain (left) takes notes as Canadian ambassador Mark McDowell meets with Burmese Lower House Speaker U Win Myint (right)

Korea, Centre for the Study of

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