The University of Toronto has named Dr. Ellie Hisama as Dean of the Faculty of Music.
Hisama will begin a five-year term on July 1 following Don McLean, who has served as Dean since 2011.
Hailing from the USA, Hisama is a theorist and historical musicologist currently teaching at Columbia University, where she served as the music department’s vice-chair, music theory area chair.
Her research focus centres on interdisciplinary studies, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and the social and political dimensions of music. Much of her academic writing focuses on musicians who have been left out of the canon, including the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger (mother to folk singers Peggy and Mike Seeger and stepmother to Pete Seeger).
“As dean, I look forward to opening and leading conversations about how students, staff, faculty, alumni and administrators can work together towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Faculty of Music with regard to curriculum, programming, community engagement, and more,” Hisama said.
“With the current intense focus on issues of equity, now is the time to press forward towards lasting change — change that will positively affect those at the Faculty of Music, U of T, in Toronto and beyond.”
Hisama was twice nominated for the Mark Van Doren Award, an honour bestowed by Columbia students on a single professor each year for excellence in teaching. She is also an inaugural recipient of the Provost’s Faculty Mentoring Award, which recognizes senior faculty’s work mentoring tenure-track and mid-career faculty.
“Taken together with her dedication to inclusive excellence and record of path-breaking scholarship,” said Cheryl Regehr, U of T vice-president and provost, “it is clear that she has all the qualities to ensure the Faculty of Music’s success in the years ahead.”
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