After 15 years in the position, this term marks the final one for Janice Stein in her capacity as the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs.
Stein is an expert in the field of international relations, and specializes in studies on the Middle East.
She has a laundry list of achievements, including being a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada, and a recipient of the Molson Prize, among many others.
Stephen Toope, former president of the University of British Columbia, will take over Stein’s position beginning January 1, 2015.
The Varsity sat down with Stein to discuss her past, present, and future at the University of Toronto.
The Varsity: Your career has been full of remarkable achievements. Where does your time at the Munk School fit into that list?
Janice Stein has served as director of the Munk School for 15 years. AFIF AQRABAWI/THE VARSITY
Janice Stein: The Munk School is one of the things that I am proudest of. It started as a small start-up — multidisciplinary — pulling people together from across the campus. It is a really special environment. We think of ourselves as an incubator where people can come and feel free to take some smart risks and to be comfortable failing. In order to do that, you need to have an environment which is somewhat informal and supportive, and I think that culture has infused all of our teaching and research.
TV: Could you share something that has most stood out for you over the course of your time at Munk?
JS: Two programs: the Masters of Global Affairs and the Munk One program, which we started from scratch and which are different. They both share one overriding objective which is to encourage Canadians to be truly global. We’re not great at that yet in this country. Our students at the University of Toronto, for example, don’t study in other countries as much as we encourage them to do so. In the Masters of Global Affairs program we send every student out to another country on an internship. When we started this program that was a key part of it for me. There was a lot of skepticism that we could meet that objective. We did and our global partners are growing, and students tell me that it is a defining experience for them… If you ask me what the most exciting thing I have done at the Munk School [is], it is to create an environment where people feel comfortable pushing the boundaries.
TV: After 15 years as the Director of the Munk School, why is now the right time to step down?
JS: I think that 15 years is a very long time for an institution to have the same leader. It probably should have been sooner because it’s healthy for an institution to bring in new leadership. I have a wonderful successor, Stephen Toope… and he will take a look at everything we are doing and bring new ideas of his own. It’s invigorating and healthy for an institution to have somebody who hasn’t grown up inside it to bring new energy and new ideas.
TV: Can you share what you see as your future with the university, and the Munk School?
JS: It’s not goodbye to the Munk School and its not goodbye to the University of Toronto. Everybody I know is a serial failure at retirement… I am going to continue to teach at the Munk School, I love the course and the students I teach. Even though I have two years leave, I will still come back and teach the course next fall. I will continue to do research, which I always did even as director but now I will have much more time to do. In the broader university, if I am asked, I will continue to do whatever I can.
TV: What do you see for the future of the Munk School of Global Affairs and for Canadian educational opportunities in the field of global issues?
JS: I think that global issues have never been more important to Canada. Canadian students in the University of Toronto, one of the most diverse cities in the world, meet each other in the classrooms. We then say to ourselves that that’s enough, but that’s not true. What I hope to do in the future is to continue to encourage students to go outside Canada to study, to work, and to learn. But also to feel that the world that we live in now, allows for what I call ‘bridges.’ That’s how I see the Munk School. It’s a bridge that I hope students will be able to cross back and forth, from Canada into the world and back, and our alumni association is devoted to that as well. We have to go out in the world more than we do.
TV: Do you have any advice for students on the importance of taking risks and learning from failure?
JS: That’s the core of the message at the Munk School. Nothing great ever happens without failure. We learn far more from our failures than from our successes. When we fail for good reasons — reasons that were not predictable — we have the invaluable opportunity to learn, reassess, change direction, and simply to do better next time. Fear of failure produces a mediocrity or sameness that I think is limiting. We don’t do as much at home and we don’t do as much in the world because we are reluctant to take risks and we fear failure. That’s what the Munk School is changing for our students, and I hope I can continue to work on that in the broader culture.
TV: Do you have any final remarks as you leave the role?
JS: The Munk School is what it is today because it is at the University of Toronto. We draw from the U of T as a whole, our faculty comes from across the University, from Arts and Science, Law, Rotman, Medicine, and Applied Sciences and Engineering. The depth of the university, both in terms of the excellence of its faculty and the strength of its students is extraordinary. We have done some interesting and exciting things, but we have been able to do that because we are at such a wonderful university.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Disclosure: Emma Compeau is Front of House staff at the Munk School of Gloal Affairs.
