Dr. Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano
Influential Leader
Dr. Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano is Provost and Vice-President, Academic at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and a full professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the Faculty of Arts.
She earned her PhD in Italian Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research spans southern Italian dialectology, Molisan dialect literature, theatre, plurilingualism, and the representation of ethnicity and identity on social media, as well as Italian food, branding, and authenticity in diasporic contexts.
Roberta has published widely, including a monograph and edited volumes. She co-edited Italian Foodways Worldwide: The Dispersal of Italian Cuisine(s) (Soleil, 2019) with Gabriele Scardellato and Domestic Goods: Silence Speaks in Our Objects, Clothing, Keepsakes and Interiors (2024) with Lorella Di Cintio. She also co-hosted a 2025 SSHRC-funded symposium on the unhoused.
She joined TMU in 2020 as Vice-Provost, Faculty Affairs, following progressive academic leadership roles at other institutions. As Provost and Vice-President, Academic, she serves as TMU’s Chief Academic Officer and Chief Operating Officer, providing executive leadership across the academic enterprise, including faculties and schools, graduate and postdoctoral education, student success, strategic enrolment management, and academic policy, while stewarding budgets, governance, and internationalization. In 2025 she co-organized the Global AI Summit in collaboration with Times Higher Education and created TMU’s Empowering Women in Academia Series.
Deeply committed to equity, diversity, inclusion, access, and Reconciliation, Roberta advances initiatives addressing systemic barriers, including those affecting women’s advancement, health equity, caregiving, and workplace wellbeing. She is co-chair of the Presidential Implementation Committee to Confront Anti-Black Racism and the TRC Strategic Working Group.
Roberta is an active community leader and has held national roles, including President of the Canadian Association for Italian Studies and Vice-President of the Italian-Canadian Archives Project. She has received numerous awards, including the CIBPA Award for Professional Excellence (2023), the CIBPA Women’s Leadership Champion Award (2025), and WXN’s Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100™ Award (2025). Fluent in English, French, and Italian, she also holds certificates in Conflict and Dispute Resolution and Labour Relations.