Adil Najam Named Dean of Pardee School of Global Studies

The new Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies took a major step forward last week with the appointment of Adil Najam as inaugural dean. The school, whose core mission is the improvement of the human condition around the globe, will open in the fall. Najam, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of international relations and of earth and environment, is a well-known expert in international diplomacy and development. He was director of BU’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future from 2007 through 2011.

“Adil is a wonderful choice for the dean of the Pardee School,” says President Robert A. Brown. “He has the leadership experience and the academic breadth and depth needed to lead the creation of new approaches to interdisciplinary global studies. I look forward to working with him in his new role.”

Jean Morrison, University provost and chief academic officer, says she is delighted that Najam has agreed to take on the role of inaugural dean. “Professor Najam is well positioned to lead the effort to establish the new Pardee School of Global Studies,” says Morrison. “He is a highly regarded scholar with expertise in international environmental and development policy, global governance, and higher education in developing countries. I also look forward to working with Adil in his new role.”

As dean, Najam will provide academic, intellectual, and administrative leadership to the Pardee School and promote excellence in all aspects of the school’s teaching, research, and outreach missions. He will lead the strategic planning process that will define the school’s direction for the first phase of its history and the ongoing development of its vision, goals, and strategies. He will also spearhead efforts to collaborate with partners inside the University and beyond and will be responsible for the management of the school’s financial and human resources, as well as for fundraising and stewardship as part of the Campaign for Boston University, the University’s ongoing comprehensive campaign. Najam will also serve as the director of the division of international studies, one of two divisions within the Pardee School during its inaugural phase.

The Pardee School is housed in the College of Arts & Sciences, and it will leverage that college’s existing strengths in international and global studies to reach new levels. He will report to Virginia Sapiro, dean of Arts & Sciences, and will be a member of the CAS senior leadership team.

“Adil Najam represents so much that is appropriate to the Pardee School as the founding dean,” says Sapiro. “There is his breadth of interests and interdisciplinarity, his international reach and reputation, the way he is known and admired by colleagues for his passion for the University, his generosity of spirit, and gregarious nature, and his experience in university leadership here and abroad.”

Najam says the school will provide an opportunity to build a new generation of global leaders. “Mr. Pardee’s generosity allows us to build something truly unique and meaningful,” he says. “With a deep commitment to interdisciplinarity, the Pardee School will bring together the amazing faculty and programs we already have with synergies that allow the whole to be even greater than it already is: in outstanding teaching, cutting-edge research, and relevant policy outreach and impact.”

Najam says the school’s mission “flows directly from our benefactor’s commitment: a dedication to improving the global human condition, everywhere and for everyone, and in all the ways that matter.”

A generous donor, Frederick S. Pardee (SMG’54, GSM’54, Hon.’06) established the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future 13 years ago as an interdisciplinary research center. He donated $25 million to endow the Pardee School of Global Studies, with its two divisions: one for regional studies and another for international studies. The former will bring together the CAS area studies programs—the Center for the Study of Asia, the Center for the Study of Europe, the Latin American Studies Program, the African Studies Center, the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations, and the new Middle East and North Africa Studies Program. The international studies division will incorporate the CAS international relations department along with additional faculty, offering the degrees the department currently awards. Sapiro says the division is expected to develop new and pathbreaking curricula that will be “consistent with the emerging Pardee School vision.”

The Pardee School Dean Search Advisory Committee was chaired by Nancy Ammerman, a CAS professor and chair of sociology and a School of Theology professor of sociology of religion. The committee solicited nominations, interviewed candidates, and then made recommendation to Morrison and Sapiro.  Najam’s appointment was approved by the Board of Trustees on Friday.

Najam has written and edited numerous books and more than 100 scholarly articles exploring sustainable development, Muslim and South Asian politics, environmental politics in developing countries, and philanthropy among immigrant communities in the United States. He was vice chancellor of Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore, Pakistan, from August 2011 through June 2013.