W hen Ann E. Cudd, the new dean of Arts & Sciences at BU, talks about her vision for the College, it’s with what she calls BU’s “progressive underpinning” in mind. BU, she says, has a “legacy of being open and inclusive to many peoples.” It’s a “great story” with practical benefits—the University can successfully draw upon a diversity of ideas to be more productive and innovative.
Cudd, a political philosopher and renowned university administrator, became dean of CAS on August 1, 2015, succeeding Virginia A. Sapiro, who led the College for more than seven years. She previously served as vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies and University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas. There, Cudd led efforts to enrich undergraduate education with initiatives that included a new general education curriculum and analytic tools for advising. Her research interests center on the multifaceted problems of oppression and social inequality. “What is oppression, what causes it, and—most important—why does it last for generations?” Ending that unfairness has been an academic and practical pursuit.
“Higher education should be the engine of social mobility,” says Cudd. “It should really aim to lift students up from all corners.”
Cudd spoke with arts&sciences about her hopes for CAS and ideas for advancing its educational and research missions.
What does it mean to you to be joining the College of Arts & Sciences?
I am thrilled and honored to be the new dean of Boston University College of Arts & Sciences. The arts and sciences have been my home and my passion for most of my life, from my days as a student at Swarthmore College to my service as associate dean for humanities at the University of Kansas. I love the breadth and depth of thought and creativity that faculty and students achieve when they pursue the arts and sciences. As dean, I am called on to learn about, and in turn facilitate, the boundless production of knowledge, and I cannot imagine a better job than that. I consider it a tremendous honor to be entrusted with this deanship, succeeding Dean Sapiro, who has set a very high standard. Boston University is an outstanding research institution, a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, and its faculty is talented and accomplished. The leadership of President Brown and Provost Morrison has brought higher rankings, greater support, and wider recognition for BU. I have confidence that with collaboration and hard work, we can build on our growing recognition to contribute even more fully to human progress and understanding.
What is your vision for CAS?
My broad vision is for CAS to provide an outstanding education for undergraduates to become global leaders; excellent graduate programs that lead to immediate success in business, government service, and academia; and first-rate discovery and research that transform our world. This means we need to continue to attract and retain the best faculty and students, engage in outstanding, cutting-edge teaching and mentoring, and provide rich academic programs that take advantage of our legacy and promise and meet real human needs.
I am very impressed by what I see at CAS. The College provides a solid educational foundation for all undergraduates, offers a broad set of opportunities for majors and graduate study, and fosters outstanding research in the humanities and social, natural, and computational sciences. CAS supports dynamic programs and research centers that stimulate interdisciplinary work. There is also a great foundation for leadership and growth laid out in recent strategic planning and academic program reviews. The first item on the to-do list, then, is to learn more about the depth of talent and collaboration at CAS, and to explore where we can go from here.
How would you describe your leadership style?
Leadership is about fostering collaboration and teamwork; it’s about bringing together people and ideas to spark creativity, develop common purpose, and commit to action. I believe that decisions are best made by bringing together diverse views in open and collegial debate and discussion, with a leader who keeps dialogue focused on mission, brings critical data to bear on the questions, and knows when the time has come to end debate and take action. As I go forward, I will invite and encourage debate and discussion in a variety of venues, and gather independent data, to set priorities for funding and growth.
Of all of your accomplishments at the University of Kansas, which do you feel has made the most difference in people’s lives?
Among my accomplishments are hiring, mentoring, and supporting outstanding faculty, developing new academic programs and research centers, building and overseeing a new general education program, and producing award-winning philosophical research. But my work teaching and mentoring students is the work that has had the most direct impact on individuals’ lives. A teacher can open up a person’s mind, bestow confidence, and motivate that person to reflect on mistakes in ways that lead to growth and discovery. My students have done amazing things in academia, law, and corporate and nonprofit work. As an administrator, my goal is to facilitate and encourage the teaching and research that our faculty does that can have this kind of impact, and which is the real work of the University.
What role do you want to see the College of Arts & Sciences play in society?
Studying and doing research in the liberal arts and sciences is transformative for both individuals and society. Education should empower us to make our lives better, more just, and more satisfying, and CAS is central to this educational goal at BU. The arts and sciences teach us the critical thinking, mutual understanding, and creative discovery that are necessary for a vibrant, democratic future. Our world needs critical thinkers who will challenge received wisdom, ask questions, discover problems, and strike out in new ways to find solutions. Through the humanities and interpretive social sciences, we come to understand the struggles and achievements of our fellow human beings, to interpret art, literature, and social movements, to take an ethical perspective and discover the nature of human flourishing. Through social sciences, we come to understand each other scientifically, our motivations, our passions, our foibles, biases, struggles, and potential. Through the natural sciences, we come to understand the natural world, how the world began, what it is made of, where it may be going, the evolution of life and the nature of disease. Mathematics and the computational sciences give us the language of science and a means of harnessing data and information. We as a society need the many disciplines of the humanities and social, natural, and computational sciences to come together in new ways. And we need these disciplines to work more closely with the more pragmatically oriented scientists, practitioners, and scholars in engineering, medicine, and the arts to create solutions to the world’s grand challenges. CAS can lead the way.