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Virginia
Sapiro Named Dean of Arts and Sciences
at Boston University
Former
University of Wisconsin Vice Provost
to Lead BU’s
Largest College
(Boston) Virginia
Sapiro, the former vice provost at one
of the nation’s largest universities,
will take the helm of Boston University’s
College and Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences (CAS/GRS), the institution’s
most central teaching and research enterprise
and BU’s academic epicenter, Provost
David K. Campbell announced today.
The University of Wisconsin’s Sapiro,
formerly vice provost for Teaching and
Learning at the country’s 11th largest
university, replaces Jeffrey J. Henderson,
dean since July 2002. Last June, Henderson,
the William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of
Greek Language and Literature, announced
his intention to resign his post effective
July 1, 2007, to return to teaching and
research in Department of Classical Studies.
Sapiro was the selection of the 11-member
CAS/GRS Dean Search Committee convened
by Campbell last October and headed by
Philosophy Department Chair Charles Griswold.
“Dr. Sapiro’s outstanding
accomplishments in research, her love of
teaching and mentoring, and her breadth
of academic and administrative expertise
within a large university made her our
clear-cut choice as dean,” said Provost
Campbell. “We are confident that
she will enhance the centrality of a liberal
arts education for all Boston University
students and lead CAS to still higher levels
of excellence in teaching, research and
scholarship.”
The Boston University College and Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences offers an education
steeped in the traditions of self-discovery
and evaluation for the transfer of knowledge
in humanities, the natural sciences and
social sciences. Serving nearly 9,500 students
and home to more than 600 faculty members,
the undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences
is where all undergraduate students at
BU converge, regardless of major. Students
enrolled in BU's other undergraduate schools
take an average of nearly 40 percent of
their classes there, enriching their professional
studies with the core principles and essential
ideas of the liberal arts. And the Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences is home to
internationally known scholars whose life-changing
discoveries have made BU a premier research
institution.
Sapiro, a New Jersey native who earned
a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science at
the University of Michigan, began her academic
career in 1976 as an assistant professor
in the Political Science Department and
Women’s Studies Program at UW-Madison.
She ascended to associate professor in
1981 and full professor five years later.
She was named chair of the Women’s
Studies Program in 1986, and served as
chair of the Department of Political Science
from 1993-96. In 1995, she was named the
Sophonisba P. Breckinridge Professor, named
for the social worker, educator and social
activist of the early 1900s who was the
first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Political
Science and law degree from the University
of Chicago.
“The College of Arts and Sciences
is the heart of a great university, and
I am honored to be given the opportunity
to lead it through its next exciting phase,” said
Sapiro, who was inducted into the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002. “A
premier college of arts and sciences must
have three core attributes which must frame
the work of the dean. First, it must be
a vibrant, supportive, productive learning
community for its students and faculty
across our great diversity of fields, approaches,
and experiences. Secondly, it must self-consciously
devote itself to the values and practices
of the liberal arts and a liberal education.
Thirdly, it must be a valuable citizen
of the larger communities of which we are
part, both within the university and in
the world beyond.
“We have to provide a superb undergraduate
education that considers the whole person,
which provides a foundation of knowledge,
skills, creativity and love of learning
to serve them throughout their lives.”
From 1997 to 2001, Sapiro was a research
scientist at the University of Michigan’s
Institute for Social Research, one of the
oldest survey research organizations and
a world leader in the development and application
of social science methodology.
In 2002, she was appointed UW’s
vice provost for Teaching and Learning,
a post she held until December 2006. She
also served as interim provost and vice
chancellor for Academic Affairs from late
2005 through early 2006. This year, Sapiro
was named faculty affiliate to the Wisconsin
Center for the Advancement of Post-Secondary
Education, established in 2001 on the UW
campus to study the challenges confronting
post-secondary education while bringing
together university leaders, researchers,
and policymakers to discuss issues and
solutions.
Sapiro earned her A.B. with High Honors
in Government from Worcester’s Clark
University, where she was elected to Phi
Beta Kappa. She is currently a member of
the Board of Trustees at Clark, where she
chairs the Student Affairs Committee, and
is the former vice chair of the Academic
Affairs Committee.
Sapiro's research and teaching interests
include political psychology and political
behavior, gender politics, American political
development, democratic theory, and the
design and philosophy of social science
research. Her first book, The Political
Integration of Women: Roles, Socialization,
and Politics (1983), serves as a classic
in survey-based research on gender and
adult political socialization. A Vindication
of Political Virtue: The Political Theory
of Mary Wollstonecraft (1992), which
won the American Political Science Association's
Victoria Schuck Award for best book on
women and politics, is a study of an 18th
century democratic theorist who was one
of the most influential thinkers in history
on the rights and roles of women. Women
in American Society: An Introduction to
Women's Studies (5th edition 2002)
is a textbook drawing from current social
science research in nearly a dozen different
disciplines.
She has also written many research articles
on topics such as political socialization;
social capital; the role of gender in perceptions
of political candidates, leaders, and political
events; the recruitment of political leaders;
electoral politics; the history of the
relationship of gender to democratization
and public policy; and gender and race
politics in relation to the Clinton presidency.
Her most recent major research projects
have been on the history of political action
in the United States and gender in television
advertisements for congressional candidates.
In addition to Committee
Chair Griswold, the Dean Search Committee
was composed of the following members:
CAS senior Laura Byerly; Biology Department
Chair Geoffrey Cooper; Political Science
Professor John Gerring; School of Management
Finance and Economics Professor Shulamit
Kahn; International Relations Professor
William Keylor; College of General Studies
Humanities Chair Natalie McKnight; Loren J. Samons,
chair, Department of Classical
Studies; Ph.D. candidate Kristy Townsend;
Professor Joyce
Wong, Department of Biomedical Engineering,
College of Engineering and Randy Rubinstein,
executive assistant to the Provost.
Boston University’s College of Arts
and Sciences, founded in 1873, and the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1874),
combine to form the institution’s
largest college. Over 7,500 undergrads
and nearly 2,000 graduate students were
enrolled last year. Arts and Sciences is
home to 24 academic departments and 33
research centers and institutes. Undergraduates
choose from more than 2,500 courses in
the humanities, natural and social sciences,
and mathematics and computer science, pursuing
B.A. degrees in more than 70 concentrations.
Graduate students pursue M.A. and Ph.D.
degrees in nearly 50 fields of the humanities;
the natural, social, and mathematical sciences;
theology; and music. |
