The Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy recently welcomed a number of new faculty, including Stephan Heblich, who joins the Munk School as associate professor and Munk Chair in Economics, and Phillip Lipscy as director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan.

Heblich, who is cross-appointed to the Department of Economics, will teach in both the Master of Global Affairs and Master of Public Policy Programs and previously served as Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. He holds a Ph.D., Habilitation and venia legendi in Economics, from the University of Jena.

Heblich’s research focuses on spatial disparities in the distribution of consumptive or productive amenities that attract individuals or firms, which helps explain spatial variation in house prices, the share of high-skilled workers, innovative activities and entrepreneurship, or economic development. Another stream of his research focuses on causes and consequences of regional disparities in voting behaviour. Heblich has a strong interest in economic history, and also studies historic developments that explain present-day economic outcomes.

Phillip Y. Lipscy also joins the Munk School as the director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan. He is associate professor of Political Science and Chair in Japanese Politics and Global Affairs. Lipscy’s research addresses substantive topics such as international cooperation, international organizations, the politics of energy and climate change, international relations of East Asia, and the politics of financial crises. He has also published extensively on Japanese politics and foreign policy.

Lipscy’s book from Cambridge University Press, Renegotiating the World Order: Institutional Change in International Relations, examines how countries seek greater international influence by reforming or creating international organizations. Before arriving at U of T, Phillip Lipscy was an assistant professor of Political Science at Stanford University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science at Harvard University, an M.A. in International Policy Studies and a B.A. in Economics and Political science at Stanford University. Lipscy has been affiliated with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo, the Institute for Global and International Studies at George Washington University, the RAND Corporation, and the Institute for International Policy Studies.

Raji Jayaraman joins the Munk School as associate professor and will be teaching Microeconomics and Development Economics.  Her research in development and labour economics examines the role of incentives and social preferences on the decisions and performance of students, workers, and consumers. Her recent empirical work has examined the effect of incentive pay on worker productivity; school feeding programs on student outcomes; defaults on charitable donations; and immigration on employment. In collaboration with theorists, she has also worked on the identification of peer effects in social interaction models. Her research has been published in leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Journal of Development Economics.

 Rie Kijima joins the Munk School as assistant professor. Her research addresses topics such as international assessments, education reforms, gender and STEAM learning. Previously, she was a lecturer and interim director in the International Comparative Education/International Education Policy Analysis Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Kijima received her Ph.D. and M.A. in International Comparative Education from Stanford University and her B.A. from International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. She has previously worked at the World Bank as an education consultant specializing in monitoring and evaluation and traveled frequently to Morocco, Tunisia, Vietnam, and Laos. She has been affiliated with the Stanford Program in International and Cross-Cultural Education, Keio Graduate School of Media Design, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Silicon Valley Japan Platform, and the United States Japan Council. Kijima is also the Scott M. Johnson Fellow of the United States Japan Leadership Program. In 2016, she co-founded SKY Labo, an education non-profit organization to promote inquiry-based approaches to STEAM learning. She co-authored a book on Design Thinking and STEAM Education which was published by Asahi Shinbun Press in January 2019. Kijima was featured as one of 100 women entrepreneurs around the world by Forbes Japan in March 2019.

Donald Kingsbury is interim director of Munk One, the Munk School’s first-year foundation program. He holds a doctorate in Politics and Latin American Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Kingsbury has extensive teaching experience in Canada, the United States and Latin America and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and the Latin American Studies Program at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Only the People Can Save the People: Constituent Power, Revolution, and Counterrevolution in Venezuela(SUNY, 2018) which examines the history and practice of direct democracy in contemporary Venezuela and the challenges egalitarian social movements face in the context of state power and globalization. Kingsbury’s research focuses on Latin American politics, political ecology, and social thought.  A frequent commentator for local, national, and international news outlets, he has also served as an advisor to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and the Canadian Senate on contemporary Latin American affairs. Kingsbury is a member of the Executive Board of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, an avid soccer fan, and a bicycle enthusiast.

Finally, Sean Speer is assistant professor and project director of the Munk School’s Ontario 360 project. He is also the Prime Ministers of Canada Fellow at the Public Policy Forum. Sean previously served in different roles for the federal government, including as senior economic advisor to the Prime Minister. He has been cited by The Hill Times as one of the most influential people in government and by Embassy Magazine as one of the top 80 people influencing Canadian foreign policy. He has written extensively about federal policy issues, including taxes and government spending, urban and rural development, and economic competitiveness. His articles have appeared in every major national and regional newspaper in Canada (including the Globe and Mail and National Post) as well as prominent U.S.-based publications (including the Wall Street Journal and National Review Online).‎ Sean holds an M.A. in History from Carleton University and has studied economic history as a Ph.D.  candidate at Queen’s University.

The Munk School warmly welcomes all of our new faculty, and extends sincere thanks to Louis Pauly, J. Stefan Distinguished Professor of Political Economy and professor, Centre for the Study of Global Japan, for his leadership and vision during his tenure as Interim Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan.

September 16, 2019