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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, chairman, 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.
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