Geographer heads faculty of social sciences

by Valerie Shore

Keller

Dealing with space demands, creating new graduate programs, recruiting new faculty, and raising the public profile of the social sciences.

These are some of the challenges ahead for Dr. Peter Keller as he takes the helm of UVic's faculty of social sciences. His five-year term as dean began on Aug. 1.

Keller brings to the job substantial experience in departmental, faculty and university governance and a proven commitment to teaching and research, says Jamie Cassels, vice president academic and provost, and chair of the search committee.

"The committee was impressed with Peter's outstanding academic track record, his broad understanding of the faculty and his commitment to collaboration across disciplines," says Cassels. "He has the vision and enthusiasm to help the faculty further develop its academic priorities and mission."

Keller holds a BA in geography from Trinity College in Ireland and a master's and PhD in geography from the University of Western Ontario. He joined UVic's department of geography in 1985.

Keller's area of research expertise is how geographic information is used and managed by society, including cartography, geographic information systems (GIS), spatial analysis and management sciences. He has more than 130 publications to his credit and is an active member of the Canadian and international cartographic community, including co-editing Cartographica, one of the field's top journals.

"My specific research focus is on the technology transition surrounding geographic information and how this information is used in decision-making," he says. "In a little over two decades we've gone from paper maps to keeping all this information on computers. This presents tremendous challenges."

Keller's work spans many areas of application, including oceanography, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, health and working with indigenous people on community mapping projects. This multidisciplinary experience will come in handy as he oversees the faculty's six departments — anthropology, economics, geography, political science, psychology and sociology — and the school of environmental studies.

Over the years, Keller has been a busy member of the campus community, working on countless computing, program planning, and building committees. He served on the university senate from 2000-03. "If there's an opportunity to help make a difference, I like to participate," he says.

His priorities as dean are the creation of new graduate programs and to help the faculty cope with its ever-growing popularity with undergraduates. "Institutional analysis shows that more than 50 per cent of the enrolment growth at UVic in the last five years has been accommodated by the social sciences," he notes. "We're bursting at the seams."

At the same time, the faculty continues to attract top, young researchers, each needing space to do his or her work. Keller plans to consult with departments to find creative and inexpensive ways of making the 38-year-old Cornett Building—which houses most of social sciences—"a little more inhabitable" for everyone.

He's also keen to raise the profile of the social sciences in the public eye. "Politicians and the media tend to place a lot of emphasis on the professional schools and what universities can do to train people for today's needs," he says. "Sometimes they forget that we also have a mandate to educate people to be tomorrow's leaders. We need to reach out to the public and explain what the social sciences are all about."