Natalie McKnight, a Victorian studies scholar and dean of the College of General Studies for 13 years, oversaw a remaking of the school’s academic calendar and off-campus studies. She will step down as dean at the end of June and, after a year-long sabbatical, return to teaching. Photo by Ziyu (Julian) Zhu (CGS’23)

College of General Studies

Natalie McKnight to Step Down as Dean of Boston University’s College of General Studies

Her 13 years at the helm saw the school remake its academic calendar and offer BU’s only first-year study abroad opportunity

Natalie McKnight will step down as dean of Boston University’s College of General Studies June 30, capping 13 years that saw CGS adopting a new academic calendar, with expanded study at home and abroad. McKnight will take a year’s sabbatical, then return to BU to teach a course on global philosophical approaches to happiness.

“It has been an incredible honor to serve as dean of CGS and to have been on the faculty here for 36 years,” says McKnight, who joined the CGS faculty in 1990 as a Victorian studies scholar. She was appointed dean in 2014. (During her time as dean, she uncovered how stories by Massachusetts millworkers helped inspire Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol). “Much has changed at CGS since I started, but our commitment to impactful interdisciplinary and experiential education has continued and grown,” she says.

During McKnight’s tenure, CGS transitioned from the typical September start of studies for incoming freshmen to January, starting with one semester in Boston ahead of a summer session in London or New England. It’s the only BU program offering study abroad in a student’s first year. (CGS operates a two-year program, after which students choose a BU school or college to complete their four-year education.) 

Her deanship also saw the introduction of the college’s first-ever minor, in interdisciplinary studies.

McKnight says her proudest accomplishment is the school’s growth in undergraduate research and professional internships, from one or two per year to about 80, thanks to donors and leadership from the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning. “These experiences have been transformative for our students,” McKnight says, “helping them to get Fulbright scholarships, graduate and medical school placements, and jobs in the area of their research interest. 

“I’m also very pleased to have helped to create and grow the Boston-London and the Boston–New England programs, which provide a rich, interdisciplinary, and experiential education for all our first-year students.” She notes that after the COVID-19 pandemic, CGS hosted 400 students in an eight-day London Experience program. “I couldn’t have done any of these things without a terrific team of staff and faculty at CGS,” she says.

After a sabbatical of travel and writing—both scholarly and creative projects—she plans to teach a BU course on global philosophies of happiness. 

“Two of my CGS colleagues have taught a Kilachand Honors College course on happiness before,” says McKnight, “and they’ve both been kind enough to share their syllabi with me, which will be a great starting point. But my approach will be more global and rooted in world religions, in terms of their philosophic perspectives. I’m excited to teach this—I could use the course myself, and that’s always a good sign.”

The class will give students credits for the Hub—the University-wide general education program—in the metrics of creativity, philosophic interpretation, and possibly teamwork, she adds.  

Gloria Waters, University provost, says McKnight has “expertly steered CGS through growth and change, guiding the college’s transition in 2020 from September to January admissions; expanding its curricular and experiential offerings, including its first minor in interdisciplinary studies; and helping develop its immersive six-week Boston–New England and Boston-London programs. …Dean McKnight’s leadership has likewise been felt at the University level, where she has been a valued partner and embodied the teamwork model of teaching and learning for which CGS is known.”

Waters will appoint an interim dean for the 2026-2027 academic year, she says, and because she herself is also stepping down as provost at the end of this academic year, she and her successor as provost will launch the search for a permanent CGS dean.