When Ryan Tonkin first arrived at the University of Victoria (UVic) as an undergraduate student in the summer of 2008, he could not afford to return to continue his schooling in the fall.
“Carrie Klatt would not accept that and helped secure the support that made my return possible. Looking back, it is difficult not to see that moment as changing the course of my life,” says Tonkin.
Mentorship in economic philosophy and law
Klatt, an associate teaching professor in philosophy, is just one of the faculty mentors at UVic that Tonkin credits with making his academic journey possible. He credits the Department of Philosophy for opening doors, creating opportunities and providing encouragement long after he completed that first degree.
Born in Victoria, Tonkin left home at 14, spending his teenage years on the street, in group homes and in foster care. Today, he’s a recipient of the Governor General’s Gold Medal, which honours a student who has completed the most outstanding doctoral thesis, and works at the intersection of philosophy, law and public policy to understand how social systems influence people’s opportunities and how ideas about justice operate in practice.
With the support of mentors and community, Tonkin completed his BA and MA in philosophy at UVic before heading to Boston, where he earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
“Returning to UVic for doctoral work felt less like starting over and more like rejoining a community that had already played an important role in my academic and personal development,” he reflects.
Philosophical questions: explaining social and economic community concerns
For years, Tonkin has been involved in legal and community advocacy in BC, working with Pivot Legal Society and Together Against Poverty Society to provide legal advocacy and help build volunteer-based initiatives focused on access to federal disability benefits.
In this work helping people navigate the complex and urgent problems of disability benefits, housing and social assistance, he says, “I saw firsthand how institutions can shape people’s opportunities and life trajectories. Many of the questions that drive my research grew directly out of seeing how institutional arrangements affect people’s lives in practice.”
In his research, Tonkin examines the underlying assumptions that shape debates about tax policy, specifically, “because it is one of the central ways that societies put their ideas about distributive justice into practice,” he says.
Through his legal education and community advocacy, he had seen how institutional arrangements can both create opportunities and impose restraints on people’s lives. Tonkin was struck by how “existing social and economic arrangements were treated as neutral starting points for evaluating justice.” During his doctoral program, he spent a year with BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner on the research and policy team, working as the project lead for Rights in Focus, a major report on inequities and injustices impacting BC residents.
“Questions about tax policy, for example, are not simply legal questions about rules, economic questions about efficiency, or philosophical questions about justice. They are all of those at once. I am particularly interested in how philosophy can reveal assumptions hidden within public policy frameworks.”
The road ahead: deepening understandings of economic injustice
Before receiving the Governor General’s Gold Medal, Tonkin had already been recognized with a Trudeau Scholarship and Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, which made the years of focused research required for his work accessible. Through the Trudeau Scholarship, he was able to encounter places and perspectives from Turtle Lodge in Sagkeeng First Nation to crab fisheries in Bay de Verde—experiences that exposed him to diverse ways of understanding community, institutions and collective life.
The Governor General’s Gold Medal is an especially meaningful recognition of a project that weaves together Tonkin’s work in law, community advocacy and philosophy.
More than marking the end of a project, receiving the Governor General’s medal is encouragement to keep pursuing questions that matter.”
—Ryan Tonkin, PhD (Philosophy)
Tonkin himself is quick to recognize the mentors who shaped his journey: Professor Peter Dietsch (Philosophy) and Associate Professor Brad Bryan (Law), whose expertise made interdisciplinary research possible, and Professor Colin Macleod (Philosophy), his supervisor. “Colin has been part of my academic journey for nearly two decades. More than anyone, he taught me what it means to be a philosopher and has provided steady, unfailing guidance and support.”
UVic remains a home for Tonkin, who will return this fall for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in law.
