Professor Profiles: some of UofT's finest dish on life beyond the lecture

A professor's life is seldom the subject of discussion in classes, but it's always been fodder for speculation among students. Who is this person? How did he or she get from the seat in the room to the podium at the front? In this issue's feature, Strand editors Sean MacKay and Chance McAllister speak with popular professors in the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Toronto: Profs. Ronald Deibert, Mark Kingwell, and Nick Mount. Read on, and learn about working at KFC, meeting Johnny Rotten, and raccoon alter-egos.

Ronald J. Deibert is a popular and distinguished Political Science professor at the University of Toronto. In 2002, he won both the University of Toronto Outstanding Teacher Award as well as the Northrop Frye Teaching and Research Award. In 2007, his name appeared on Esquire's Best and Brightest list.

Oh, and he is also a spy.

Well, that is not entirely true. His work is considered espionage in some countries and research in others; luckily, in Canada it is research. He is also the Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies.

In an interview with The Strand he explains what exactly the Citizen Lab does.

"We are presently focused on the domain of cybersecurity, and I am particularly interested in investigating cyber wars, and promoting the notion of cyber arms control. I believe that cyberspace is a valuable global commons that should be protected and preserved as an open public forum for citizens of all the world. Presently, there is a very real and destructive arms race in cyberspace that we need to counter with norms of mutual restraint. Knowledge is power, and the domain of knowledge is cyberspace. It is being rapidly degraded with censorship, surveillance and militarization."

Although Deibert, to my knowledge, does not gallivant around the world drinking martinis that are shaken and not stirred, he does possess what could be perhaps described as a modern James Bond aura. The work he and his team are doing at the Citizen Lab is both groundbreaking and risky. At this year's Keith Davey lecture, Deibert admitted that his work poses a risk, but that he isn't particularly afraid.

Before the teaching accolades and creation of the Citizen Lab, Deibert did an undergraduate degree in International Relations at the University of British Columbia. It was here that he was introduced to philosophy and the arts. He took mainly philosophy, political sciences, and political theory courses.

When asked about his life as an undergraduate student, he fondly recounts several tidbits. "I spent a lot of productive study time in the PITT Pub, and remember vividly watching the 87 Canada Cup on the big screen there. I loved taking naps in the Law Library, and waking up with big creases in my face and drool on my Nietzsche. I saw a lot of great concerts at the War Memorial Gym-including Black Uhuru, King Sunny Ade, Burning Spear, DOA-and I actually met Johnny Rotten there while working as 'security' for the Public Image Ltd. concert."

In regards to music, he has a particularly precise idea about what he enjoys. When asked the cliché (but still wonderfully revealing) question concerning his favourite song of all time, he answers not one song, but specific parts of particular recordings.

"Let me answer that this way. I love the opening to the 1968 studio version of Jumpin' Jack Flash by the Rolling Stones, and I love the opening few bars to London Calling by the Clash. Both make my spine tingle when I hear them and I always crank it. My favourite bass player of all time is Aston "Family Man" Barrett from the Wailers, and I love the way Miles Davis plays trumpet."

In a generation that has people walking around with forty Gs (and for all you big spenders, I am talking about Gigabits, not cash money) of music in their pockets, someone referring to particular sections of a song is astonishing. It is surely no coincidence that Deibert is the Director of a group of people that scour the world wide web for traces of cyber warfare, which is about as precise as looking for a floating bottle in the sea.

As is custom for all my interviews, I ask him what kind of animal he'd be if he were in the type of hypothetical world that allowed people to change from human to beast. Like the distinguished intellectual that he is, he cleverly wrangles his way out of a straight answer by replying with "A Political Animal, of course!, " referring to Aristotle's claim that a human is a Zo”n Politikon, a city-dwelling creature.

-Chance McAllister

If you pass by the Isabel Bader theatre at around 3 on a Friday afternoon, you'll likely see Professor Nick Mount out on the front steps, puffing a cigarette, surrounded by his students, some smoking, some out there simply to share in a casual conversation with their professor. This has been the mid-lecture break ritual for Mount's Literature for Our Time class for years, and even the most militant anti-smoking activist must concede that having a smoke with your students is a great way to interact with them in a friendly and informal manner.

Professor Mount is undeniably personable, as is immediately apparent when he greets me in his office on the seventh floor of the Jackman Humanities Building. When detailing his life and academic career he speaks with sincerity and an affable modesty one would not necessarily expect from the recipient of the 2009 President's Teaching Award and two-time finalist in TVO's Best Lecturer competition.

Born in Sault Ste. Marie, Mount spent his childhood in Scarborough and small town Nova Scotia. During his adolescence and early adult years he lived in British Columbia where he would eventually complete his bachelor's degree in English at the University of Victoria. What separates Mount from most academics is that he did not enter university until he was 28; in fact, he did not even graduate from high school.