Congratulations to Dr. Ito Peng for her recent appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). This designation is reserved for Canadians whose contributions to research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences have been meaningful within both Canadian and worldwide academic and policymaking spheres.
Ito Peng is the Canada Research Chair in Global Social Policy and Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the Department of Sociology, and the School of Public Policy and Governance. She serves as the Director of the Centre for Global Social Policy at the University of Toronto and has also been granted prestigious positions working with Statistics Canada, the Institute for Research in Public Policy, and the SSHRC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative Consultation Group, among many others.
Peng is a world-renowned leader in global social policy research focusing on East Asian social policy, gender, migration, and care economy policies. Her research is amongst the first to reach beyond the frameworks of welfare state theories based on the Global West and to create new frameworks that better suit the nuances of countries around the world, particularly within East Asia.
The impacts of her research on the care economy have been crucial in shaping discussions about social policies and investment in the care economy for policymakers worldwide following the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, her work is cited in research and policy debates in Centres of Excellence and research networks across North America, Europe, and Asia.