King's welcomes new full-time faculty members

As King’s welcomes new students for the fall semester, we also welcome new full-time tenure track faculty members.

Dr. Dustin Ciufo, Childhood & Youth Studies, completed his Ph.D. in Political Science and International Development Studies at the University of Guelph. His teaching and research focus is on children’s rights, participation, and activism in relation to peace and conflict, migration, and global development issues.

This upcoming academic year will see him teaching courses including CYS 2214: Introduction to Advocacy, CYS 2231: Childhood, Poverty Policy, and the Law, as well as CYS 3351: Facilitating Child Advocacy.

“I feel truly excited and feel tremendously blessed to be starting this position at King’s as it affords me the sincere privilege to work alongside academically engaged students and remarkably supportive colleagues,” says Dr. Ciufo. He is very much looking forward to learning from and contributing to the King’s University College community.  

Dr. Hui Fan, Assistant Professor in the School of Management, Economics, and Mathematics, defended her Ph.D. at Concordia University on July 19, 2024. Dr. Fan previously taught as a part-time instructor at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University. 

She has a master’s degree in Financial Risk Management from the University of Connecticut, is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in good standing, and her research interests are in the areas of financial reporting, voluntary disclosure, non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting.

This coming year, Dr. Fan will be teaching foundational accounting courses in the areas of financial and managerial accounting. Members of the recruiting committee were impressed with the level of care and preparation that Hui put into both her research talk and teaching demonstration, which included many clear examples to help explain important accounting principles.

“I am so excited to be joining King’s! Joining King’s marks a significant new chapter for me. I am looking forward to engaging with bright and enthusiastic students, collaborating with esteemed colleagues, and contributing to a vibrant academic community. I can’t wait to share my passion for accounting and to inspire and be inspired by our students at King’s,” says Dr. Fan.

Amina Hussain, Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work, has 13 years of direct practice experience, particularly in interdisciplinary care settings where she has held positions including psychotherapist, mental health lead, clinical supervisor, and team lead. Amina is a doctoral candidate at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. 

In her teaching, she has discussed systemic oppression, human rights, social justice, anti-oppressive practice, and theoretical foundations of intersectionality and critical race theory. Drawing from her real-world experiences as a clinical supervisor in diverse contexts, she prioritizes fostering critical reflexivity to support students' understanding of oppressions related to class, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual identity, age, and ability.

Hussain’s research interests include mental health, social work leadership, leadership competencies within interdisciplinary care, social work practice, recovery-oriented care, anti-oppressive practice, anti-colonial work, mixed methods, and community-based participatory action research.

Dr. Luisa Liboni, School of Management, Economics, and Mathematics, received a Ph.D. and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She also holds a B.Ed. in Professional and Technological Education. Liboni was an associate professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of São Paulo, Brazil. She has given lectures at Western University and at the Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil. She comes to King’s following a fellowship at the Muller Lab at Western’s Department of Mathematics; Brain and Mind Institute.

“I am thrilled to be joining the outstanding faculty at King’s. The opportunity to teach and collaborate with such a vibrant and dedicated community is incredibly exciting. Together with students, faculty, and staff, I look forward to contributing to the academic excellence that King’s is known for,” says Dr. Liboni.

Dr. Liboni will be teaching Introduction to Analytics and Methods of Finite Mathematics.

Dr. Eleni Nicolaides, a new Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations, studies Canadian law, politics, and public policy. She conducted SSHRC-funded doctoral research on constitutional litigation before the Supreme Court of Canada, third-party interveners, and legislative policy replies.

Dr. Nicolaides completed her BA (Honours) and MA at the Department of Political Science at Brock University, and her Ph.D. in Law/Politics and Public Policy/Governance at the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph, where she previously was a sessional instructor.

She looks forward to joining King's and teaching courses including POLI 1021: People, Power and the State, POLI 2101: Intro to Law and Public Policy, and POLI 3303: Intro to Canadian Law. 

Dr. Nic Virtue, Assistant Professor of History, received his BA from the University of Lethbridge, his MA from the University of Calgary, and his Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Virtue started teaching History part-time at King’s while pursuing graduate studies at Western.

After thirteen years of service as a contract instructor, Virtue is excited to join the History Department in this full-time role.

Virtue’s research focuses on Italian fascism, colonialism, and mass violence in the era of the world wars. This year, he will be teaching History courses on European totalitarian dictatorships, crisis and anxiety in the early modern age, and the Holocaust and human rights. He is especially looking forward to co-teaching the experiential learning course with Prof. Graham Broad on World Wars in History, Memory, and Reconciliation, which culminates in a class trip to Belgium and France next spring.

Ruth Wilson, a new Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work, has more than 10 years of community practice experience and 15 years of applied, participatory research experience both in community and academic settings. She is a doctoral candidate at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. Her work draws on critical race and decolonizing frameworks to mobilize racialized communities, most notably racialized immigrants and refugees, through participatory forms of research and community organizing. Ruth’s research interests include the racialization of poverty and labour, immigrant integration into the labour market, anti-poverty community organizing, and community-based research.

Welcome to King’s. We hope your time here is enjoyable, and we are confident that your classrooms will be both exciting and enriching for our students.