Ron Levi

Biography

Ron Levi serves as Associate Director, Academic at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. He is a Professor in the Munk School and the Department of Sociology, and a Permanent Visiting Professor at the University of Copenhagen.

Trained in law and sociology, Ron focuses his research on the legal and political dimensions of how we respond to crime and violence, with a focus on political junctures and times of change. His work includes attention to urban crime and policing, and responses to mass violence and atrocities. In his current projects he is studying the relationship between police violence events, collective memory, and beliefs in legality, and organizational strategies in the fields of international criminal law and human rights. He directs the Global Justice Lab in the Munk School, which focuses on justice systems under stress or strain.

A former Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Ron has served in a range of academic leadership positions at the University of Toronto, where he has directed undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs. He received the Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize in 2014, and his teaching at U of T has been recognized with an award for undergraduate Teaching Excellence. He currently serves as Secretary of the Law & Society Association.