Finalists for the Dean of the Honors College are Invited to Visit WSU
PULLMAN, Wash. — A search for the new dean of the Honors College is nearing completion as the search committee and administration have selected three finalists who have been invited to visit Washington. Mary Wack, former dean of Honors, accepted the position of Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Libby Walker has served as Interim Dean of Honors since July 2007.
While numerous visits and interviews are slated during the visits, all faculty and staff are invited to attend the open sessions. The open sessions will be announced through WSU announcements as soon as schedules are finalized.
The three candidates are: Robert Ulin, Hector Flores and Stephen Rosenbaum.
Robert Ulin
Robert Ulin, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology at Western Michigan University is scheduled to visit campus February 18, 2008.
He was named chair of anthropology in 1999, going to WMU from the University of Kansas, where he had served one year as visiting associate professor of anthropology. Prior to that, he had served as associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Allegheny College since 1992 and as assistant professor there from 1985 to 1992. He also has been a visiting scholar or adjunct faculty member at several colleges in the United States and France.
Ulin’s research interests are: anthropology of Europe, social and cultural theory, political economy, ethnohistory, globalization, nationalism, wine growing, commodities. Dr. Ulin has recently completed a new edition of his book Understanding Cultures which includes new essays on Modernism and Post-Modernism in Anthropology and Post Colonial Theory and has been translated into Chinese by Guogiang He and published by Peking (Beijing) University Press. He is currently doing further research on the general theme of the culture of work and plans to continue his research in France with a return to the southwest of France to look at 19th century wine growing associations and to examine how wine cooperatives are faring with changes brought about through the EU. He has also recently begun research on wineries in Michigan and Germany. Additionally, he has just been appointed as a Fulbright Senior Specialist and has been invited to China for the summer of 2008 to lecture at Sun Yat-Sen University.
Ulin received his B.A. from Whittier College and earned his M.A. and his Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research.
Hector Flores
Hector Flores, Dean and Professor of Biological Sciences, College of Science, Texas State University-San Marcos, is scheduled to visit campus February 25, 2008.
Dr. Flores worked at Louisiana State University from 1985-1988 and joined Pennsylvania State University in 1988 as professor of Plant Pathology in the college of Agriculture. He was also adjunct professor of biology and faculty member in the Intercollege Graduate Programs in Plant Physiology and Ecology and the Life Sciences Consortium. He served as Director of the Science, Technology and Society Program at Penn State from 1996-1999. Flores was program director for metabolic biochemistry at the National Science Foundation from 199 through 2001. During this last 6 years at Penn State, Dr. Flores taught Honors classes at the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State. In 2003 he became Dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics at Arkansas State University and professor of biological sciences, while also holding a research appointment with the Arkansas BioSciences Institute.
As a researcher, Flores has received more than $9 million in competitive grants as both co- and principal investigator from federal, state and other competitive programs including private foundations. His research projects have centered on the metabolism and biochemistry of biologically active compounds produced in plant roots, and the uses of plants for nutrition, pharmaceutical and agrochemical applications. Flores has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, ARCO Chemical Company, Pennsylvania Research Corporation, Hawaii Biotechnology Group, Charles Lindbergh Fund and The McKnight Foundation.
Dr. Flores was born and raised in Lima, Peru, and received his B.S. in biology from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and his M.S.
in horticulture at the University of Puerto Rico before earning his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in biology from Yale University.
Stephen E. Rosenbaum
Stephen E. Rosenbaum, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is scheduled to visit campus February 28, 2008.
Dr. Rosenbaum served for five years as the Dean of the Honors College at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and before that as the Director of the University Honors Program at Illinois State University. He was at Illinois State University in various academic roles including professor and acting chair of the Foreign Languages and Philosophy departments from 1971-1998.
As a nationally known scholar on Epicurean ethics and thanatology, Rosenbaum writes and teaches seminars about ancient Greek ethics and the history of ethics. A national leader in honors education, he has just completed a term on the Board of Directors of the National Collegiate Honors Council (the national organization of honors colleges and programs), and regularly advises professionals beginning work in honors educational administration.
Rosenbaum received his B.A. in Philosophy and History from Baylor University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. both in Philosophy from the University of Illinois-Urbana.
The search committee was appointed in September 2007. Fran McSweeney, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs is chairing the search committee. The search committee has been acting on behalf of the students, faculty and staff to identify candidates to come to campus and the state for interviews. There will be many opportunities for the candidate to interact with the community at large during their visits. Everyone is strongly urged to attend the interviews and provide feedback to the provost.
The search committee members are: Jessica Cassleman , Honors; Denny Davis , Bioengineering; Deb Dzuck , Office of Undergraduate Education; Richard Gill , Environmental Science & Regional Planning ; Rachel Halverson , Foreign Languages and Cultures ; George Kennedy , English ; Mary Sanchez Lanier , Molecular Biosciences ; Dick Law , General Education ; Ken Vreeland , Provost’s Office ; Tom Westphal , Student.
CONTACT: Provost’s Office, 509-335-5581