Dr. Ellen Amster, McMaster’s Global Ambassador and Associate Professor, Family Medicine, represents McMaster University in Global Affairs Canada (GAC)’s Canadian Universities Mission to Morocco

In January, Dr. Ellen Amster, McMaster’s Global Ambassador and Associate Professor, Family Medicine, represented McMaster in Global Affairs Canada (GAC)’s Canadian Universities Mission to Morocco, aiming to explore opportunities for partnership and collaboration in the higher education sector. Morocco historically has always been a gateway to university training and professional development for sub-Saharan Africans; now Morocco is focused on building the capacity of the African continent by attracting the best and brightest for south-south collaboration.  “The mission, organized by the Canadian embassy in Morocco, allowed us to see the amazing work in Moroccan universities–cutting-edge technologies in computer science, engineering, technology, water management, and solar energy,” says Dr Amster.  While Morocco has historically been a Francophone, English is on the rise there and more academic institutions are seeking Anglophone partners. Commenting on her trip, Dr Amster notes “As a global health researcher, I was charged by the new Mary Heersink School of Global Health in the faculty of health sciences to explore Moroccan collaborations in medicine, as our global health school is the largest in Canada.  Moroccans share the ‘glocal’ vision of our school, seeing health problems as simultaneously global and local.”   

During this visit, Ellen met with different stakeholders from the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, National Center for Scientific and Technical Reseach and had a chance to visit the Mohammed V University of Rabat, International University of Rabat,  Hassan II University, University Mohamed VI Polytechnic and Moroccon Foundation for Advanced Science.  She also attended a networking event at the Official Residence of Canada.  

These collaboration efforts are an extension of McMaster hosting a delegation from Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique (UM6P)’s Africa Business School to discuss collaboration in actuarial and financial mathematics in May 2024 followed with establishing an MOU between the two institutions with ongoing discussions on collaboration in this space.  

Dr. Amster’s academic and collaborative efforts in Morocco span global health, women’s health, history, and the humanities. She has established the Morocco-Canada Network in Maternal and Infant Health, engaged with the Moroccan American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (MACECE) in Rabat as a Fulbright scholar, lead multiple undergraduate student groups to Morocco,  and conducted dissertation research in Morocco’s national archives for the 2013 book, Medicine and the Saints: Science, Islam, and the Colonial Encounter in Morocco translated into Arabic by a colleague at Muhammad V University (to be published in in 2025 by Université Internationale de Rabat Series Editor: Aomar Boum, UCLA).