Dean and Vice-Principal Academic

Dr. Rick Halpern began his term as the University of Toronto Scarborough's (UTSC) Dean and Vice-Principal (Academic) on July 1, 2009. He is the chief academic officer for the campus. Professor Halpern earned his BA and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and his MA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Upon completion of his doctorate in 1989, he joined the Department of History, University College London as a Lecturer and was later promoted to Reader. He joined the University of Toronto in 2001 as the first Bissell-Heyd Professor of American Studies in the Department of History. Following terms as Associate Director and then Acting Director, Professor Halpern served as Director of the Centre for the Study of the United States at the Munk Centre for International Studies from 2004 to 2006. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and from 2006 to 2009, served as Principal of New College.

Professor Halpern is a specialist in modern U.S. history and has written extensively on race and labour in a number of national and transnational contexts. His work is situated between the social sciences and humanities, with reach into the sciences, affording him an understanding of UTSC's multidisciplinary goals. Much of his scholarly work has been collaborative, involving work with scholars from other disciplines and international teams of researchers.

Professor Halpern is currently at work on a comparative study of migrant and racialized labour in the sugar industries of Louisiana and Natal, South Africa. His recent publications include Down on the Killing Floor: Black and White Workers in Chicago's Packinghouses, 1904-1954 (1997); Racializing Class, Classifying Race: Labour and Difference in Britain, the USA, and Africa (2000); The American South and the Italian Mezzogiorno: Essays in Comparative History (2002); and Slavery and Emancipation (2002). He has published articles in a number of journals including the Journal of American History, Social History, Labor History, the Journal of Southern African Studies, and Ethnic and Racial Studies. He supervises students working on a range of topics in African American history, US social history and transnational labour and working class history.