91����

Dear 91���� faculty, staff and students, 

Greetings from the inaugural symposium of the Global Network of Deans of Education in Innsbruck, Austria where I am together with scholars and leaders in education from around the world considering important questions broadly affecting education.  

I would like to extend a very warm welcome and welcome back to the fall term to all. I hope that the summer months provided plenty of opportunities for rest and rejuvenation with family and friends.  As classes are about to begin next week, I look forward to meeting and greeting members of our community and most especially those who are new to 91����.   

The fall term promises to be a very exciting time for the 91����. As mentioned in the spring, we will be looking ahead to our new academic plan and a number of associated initiatives that support our work as a faculty of education.  I am also looking forward to upcoming Dean’s Salons and space (re)openings that will benefit all of us, including the youngest members of our extended 91���� community. I will be sharing additional announcements and updates in the coming days and weeks that you will find on Dean's Memos and Announcements, so please do stay tuned. 

In the meantime, I would like to share a few thoughts, in part spurred by a question I was asked here in Innsbruck during a coffee break. The question – “Are you the first foreign dean of 91����?” – reminded me that there are settings where all of us could be considered a newcomer, an outsider, or someone who is an exception in any number of ways. It reminded me that there are questions or conversations that can give us pause or deepen feelings of difference. It reminded me that we all belong to multiple identities and communities that affect the way we move and interpret the world—and affect how the world sees us. 

Throughout the spring and summer, I have been thinking about how incredibly difficult, fraught, sad, and worrying these times are for many in our community. My own heart has been heavy for months, and I suspect this is true for many of us. There will, undoubtedly, continue to be differences of views held among us as well as multiple perspectives held by members of the same groups and communities. But I think an important thing to remember is that there is a collective ‘us’ at 91����. We study, work, live, and learn together, human beings with our individual imperfections and opinions and our collective sadness at the suffering in our world.

I want the ‘us’ of 91���� to hold steady and stay a course of empathy, kindness, and respect for what our community members may be going through. At 91���� we have Jewish and Muslim students, faculty, and staff; community members with connections to Palestinian and Israeli friends and families; and colleagues who are Israeli or Palestinian themselves. We have colleagues with connections all over the world, to places where there is strife, suffering, violence, and war.  

I am hopeful that as a faculty of education, guided by our research and engaged scholarship, we can find paths forward to helpful dialogue and actions in ways that are healing and restorative. While we take some time and thought to chart these paths, I seek to ensure the wellbeing and strength of our community, top of mind for any Dean and a weight of responsibility that I take very seriously.  I’m grateful for the conversations I’ve had so far, which have reminded me that we always begin by treating each other well and with respect for our shared humanity. 

As Dean of all of 91����, I thank you again for the big-hearted welcome I received when I joined you last year and know that we will welcome our newcomers enthusiastically to this amazing community of scholars and thinkers. I look forward to seeing new 91���� community members at our very own meet-and-greet coffee hour in the near future. And as always, I look forward to working together as we continue to advance 91����.

Welcome, and welcome back, again!

Erica N. Walker
Professor and Dean
91����
University of Toronto