Anne Whitelaw
Provost and Vice-President
Academic
Anne Whitelaw became Concordia University’s provost and vice-president, Academic in July 2021, having held the position on an interim basis since 2019. As the chief academic officer and chief operating officer of the university, she provides academic leadership and vision to enhance innovative teaching and learning, leads the academic planning process and ensures a superior learning environment.
Her previous administrative positions include deputy provost and vice-provost, Planning and Positioning. In these roles she delivered a comprehensive plan for student success, led the development and implementation of an integrated enrolment management plan, and oversaw student and enrolment services. As the Faculty of Fine Arts’ associate dean of research, she helped grow graduate programs, promoted her faculty’s research and artistic accomplishments, and made important contributions to institution-wide strategic planning.
Whitelaw joined Concordia’s Department of Art History as associate professor in January 2011 after serving for 11 years as a faculty member in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta.
She has served on departmental, faculty and university committees at both the University of Alberta and Concordia, is past president of the Universities Art Association of Canada, and served on the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on the State of Science and Technology and Industrial Research and Development in Canada.
She is a member of the Comité des affaires académiques of the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI), where she chairs the Groupe de travail mixte sur les violences à caractères sexuels. She also serves on the Conseil Franco-Québécois de Coopération Universitaire and the boards of Metropolis Bleu and Vanier College.
Whitelaw earned her PhD in Communications from Concordia, an MA in Art History from the University of Essex and a BA in the same field from Concordia. Her research examines the intersections of art historiography and cultural institutions in Canada with a particular focus on practices of exhibition and museum display. Her book, Spaces and Places for Art: Making Art Institutions in Western Canada 1912-1990, was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2017.
