Dr. David Morrison
Professor David Morrison, a long-time member of the Politics Department, was the founding chair of Trent’s Comparative Development Studies Program, which was established in 1976 and evolved into the current International Development Studies Program. He has served in a variety of teaching and administrative leadership roles in the University including provost and dean of arts and science, director of the Trent International Program, director of Trent’s CIDA-funded program on watershed restoration in Ecuador and Mexico, and director of the Trent-in-Ecuador Program. He has also been acting president and vice-chancellor, interim vice-president (academic), and president of the Trent University Faculty Association. Dr. Morrison authored Aid and Ebb Tide: A History of CIDA and Canadian Development Assistance, as well as two other books and numerous articles on development issues. He is a past president of the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development. Upon his retirement from Trent in 2007, he received the University’s Eminent Service Award for his exceptional contributions to the university.
Dr. Alena Heitlinger
Professor Alena Heitlinger, David Morrison’s wife, joined Trent’s Sociology Department in 1975. She is the author of eight books and numerous articles, publishing widely on feminist, demographic, health, employment, child care, migration, and ethnic issues in the former Czechoslovakia (where she was born), the Soviet Union, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and the post-communist Czech Republic. The holder of several research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Trent, she was the recipient of the Trent University Distinguished Research Award in 2000. She twice served as chair of the Sociology Department and retired as professor emeritus in 2015.
About the David Morrison Lecture in International Development
The David Morrison Lecture in International Development brings globally distinguished scholars who are renowned for the impact that their intellectual and applied work has had on international development studies to Trent University to address members of the Trent and Peterborough communities. The lecture focuses on areas that are important to David Morrison’s critical contributions to the field of international development studies, most notably approaches to reducing poverty and inequality and achieving sustainable livelihoods in ways that promote social justice and respect the human and biophysical environment.
The David Morrison Lecture in International Development is funded by a generous endowment made to Trent University in the name of David Morrison and Alena Heitlinger. The endowment aims to provide a focal point for discussing vital issues of our time from a critical interdisciplinary perspective. It also recognizes both the reputation of the Department of International Development Studies and the pivotal role played by David Morrison in establishing the indisputable need for international development studies in Canada.