Expert on Indian federalism to be next VPAC

Dr. Reeta Chowdhari Tremblay is UVic’s next Vice-President Academic and Provost, effective January 1, 2011. She will take over the position from Jamie Cassels, who has been Vice-President Academic and Provost since 2001.

“Dr. Tremblay’s international knowledge and experience will stand our university in excellent stead in this era of internationalization and globalization of higher education,” says UVic President David Turpin, who chaired the selection committee. “People who have worked with Dr. Tremblay attest to her openness and collegiality, her leadership and vision, her commitment to quality, her outstanding problem-solving, team-building and administrative skills, her principle-based approach to decision making and, last but not least, her great sense of humour.”

Tremblay is currently vice-president academic and pro vice-chancellor pro tempore at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

“Besides the obvious challenge of stepping into the shoes of such a distinguished administrator as Prof. Jamie Cassels, UVic finds itself in an increasingly competitive yet promising international and domestic environment. The uppermost goal in the provost’s agenda has to be not only to maintain but to enhance the quality of education the students receive and the academic excellence of the university,” says Tremblay. “I view this as a collective enterprise which in order to succeed will require the engagement of the entire university community.

“UVic has a tremendous reputation and I’m very excited about becoming part of the university.”

Prior to her current appointment, she served as dean of arts at Memorial from 2006 to 2009. From 1998 to 2005, she was chair of the Department of Political Science at Concordia University.

Born and raised in India, Tremblay earned a BA (Hons) and MA from the University of Kashmir, MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and MA and PhD in political science from the University of Chicago before beginning her academic career as political scientist. She is North America’s leading authority on the secessionist movement of Kashmir and on Indian federalism. Her research deals with identity-based politics, public policy and popular culture.

She is frequently called upon by governmental agencies and the media for her expertise in the South Asian region and serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals in political science and Asian studies.

Her most recent publications are Human Rights: A General Overview (2008) and Kashmir’s Secessionist Movement Resurfaces: Ethnic Identity, Community Competition, and the State in Asian Survey (2009).

Tremblay is president-elect of the Canadian Political Science Association—the leading organization for political scientists in Canada—from June 2010 to May 2011. She will take over the presidency in the academic year 2011–12.

Tremblay is married to retired economist Michel Tremblay, and her son, Arjun Tremblay, is a political science doctoral student at the University of Toronto.

More information: www.mun.ca/vpacademic/tremblay_vpa.php