Announcement of the retirement of Professor Carla Lipsig-Mummé

By Victoria Stacey

After a long career with 91��ɫ and many contributions to community organizations and trade unions, Professor Carla Lipsig-Mummé will be retiring from the Department of Social Science in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) this month.

Lipsig-Mummé began her working life as a union organizer of garment workers in San Francisco and New 91��ɫ, farmworkers with Cesar Chavez’ United Farmworkers Organizing Committee, and as a researcher for Québec’s Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ).

She has been at 91��ɫ since 1990 and was the founding director of 91��ɫ’s Centre for Research on Work & Society, serving from 1990-2001. She has also held professorships at Université Laval and Deakin University (Australia) and a Research Chair in Social and Political Inquiry at Monash University, as well as honorary positions in Russia and Australia.

Lipsig-Mummé, a Professor of Work and Labour Studies, has an impressive academic legacy. As the Principal Investigator of the seven-year (2014-2022) SSHRC titled “Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Change: Canada in International Perspective,” she gained international recognition and praise from prestigious organizations like the International Labour Organization and the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In addition to her impressive body of research, she led “Work and Climate Change” (WCC), an international community-university research partnership, which she helped grow from five partners and eight researchers from its inception to 52 partners over the past two decades.  Over the course of her career, Lipsig-Mummé’s has been principal investigator on 46 grants, 28 of which were funded by SSHRC, totalling approximately $10 million in funding.

“I think it is important to celebrate Professor Lipsig-Mummé’s long and very successful career at 91��ɫ,” said LA&PS Dean, J.J. McMurtry. “She is one of Canada’s most distinguished researchers and has earned international recognition for her impactful work”.

Lipsig-Mummé’s pioneering work on climate change grew during her appointment as a research Chair in Social and Political Inquiry at Monash University in Australia. Upon her return to 91��ɫ in 2007, she formed a team to address the pressing question, “how can workplaces help slow the threat of global warming.” This important work would dominate Lipsig-Mummé’s future research and writing.

“Professor Lipsig-Mummé’s innovative research and prolific academic publishing have helped to promote LA&PS, and 91��ɫ, on an international scale,” said LA&PS Associate Dean Faculty Affairs, David Multimer. “She is one of Canada’s most exceptional researchers in the social sciences and humanities.”

In March 2018, Lipsig-Mummé received the national Sefton-Williams Award for her contributions. The prestigious award honours those who have made a significant contribution to the field of labour relations and human rights.

In addition to teaching and research, she is also the Series Editor of the Routledge Studies in Climate, Work, and Society, a “forum for advances in environmental studies relating to society and its social, cultural, and economic underpinnings.”

“LA&PS is very proud to pay tribute to Professor Lipsig-Mummé for a distinguished career filled with numerous accomplishments and honours,” said Dean J.J. McMurtry. “For three decades, she helped to put 91��ɫ and our Faculty on the map. On behalf of everyone at LA&PS, I want to thank her and wish her all the best.”