Professor Mayo Moran has been appointed Dean of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, effective January 1, 2006 and ending June 30, 2011.
Moran, associate professor of law, joined the faculty of the University of Toronto law school in 1995. She received her LLB from McGill University, followed by an LLM from the University of Michigan and an SJD from the University of Toronto. Moran had been teaching high school English in Prince George, British Columbia when the introduction of the Charter inspired her to pursue the study of law.
Professor Moran's primary teaching areas are in private law, comparative constitutional law and legal theory. She has published in comparative constitutional law, private law, and legal and feminist theory. Her book Rethinking the Reasonable Person was published in 2003 by Oxford University Press. This fall University of Toronto Press published a volume which she co-edited with Professor David Dyzenhaus entitled Calling Power to Account: Law, Reparations and the Chinese Canadian Head Tax Case. Professor Moran's current work focuses on how our practices and theories of responsibility come to terms with discrimination. She is engaged in a project on reparations theory and transitional justice that examines the limits and possibilities of law, particularly private law, in redressing widespread historic wrongdoing. Professor Moran has worked on litigation involving the equality guarantee under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and, most recently, the Chinese-Canadian head tax claim.
Moran served as associate dean of the Faculty of Law from January 2000 to June 2002. During her time as associate dean, Moran undertook major curricular changes and innovations, including the introduction of first-year electives such as transnational law, introduction to civil law and feminism and the law. She also developed diversity initiatives, implemented the introduction of a laptop policy and worked on the expansion of clinical programs and their integration into the academic program.
"Professor Moran is a brilliant academic, a gifted teacher and very strong institutional leader," says David Naylor, president of the University of Toronto. "I am confident that she will bring great vision and leadership to the position, and will help to ensure the continued excellence, innovation and pluralism which have become hallmarks of the U of T Faculty of Law."
Moran will take over from Professor Brian Langille, who has served as interim dean since July 1, 2005. The previous dean, Professor Ronald J. Daniels was named provost of the University of Pennsylvania in May 2005.
"Toronto's law faculty is a great Canadian institution and one of the world's leading academic law schools," says Moran. "I am deeply honoured to be chosen as its dean. Thanks to the legacy of visionary academic leaders we have great opportunities before us and I look forward to working with the outstanding students, faculty and larger community to make those exciting possibilities a reality."
Moran's appointment was featured in a front page story in the Toronto Star and was also featured in the Globe and Mail.
