Appointment of Professor Carrie Preston as the next Director of the Kilachand Honors College
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
and Dr. Beth Loizeaux, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Affairs
This past spring, Professor Charles Dellheim, who has served as Director of the Kilachand Honors College since its inception in 2011 and as the College’s inaugural Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Professor, announced his plans to step down from his administrative position at the end of 2016.
In the intervening months, we conducted an internal search for the next Director of the Kilachand Honors College. We sought candidates who would bring the intellectual leadership, strategic vision, and track record of excellence in interdisciplinary scholarship essential to map the future of this signature liberal arts program for some of Boston University’s highest achieving undergraduates. After a rigorous search that considered several strong candidates, and extensive consultation with our Search Advisory Committee, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Carrie Preston as the next Director of the Kilachand Honors College.
Professor Preston is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program in the College of Arts & Sciences. For nearly a decade, she has brought highly original, prize-winning scholarship on modernist literature, gender theory, and modern drama and performance into the classroom. She has likewise energetically led the growth of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies into a program of distinction as a producer of important scholarship and a diverse and wide-ranging catalog of dynamic programming and events.
The author of two acclaimed books and numerous widely cited articles on modernism and dance, Professor Preston is the past recipient of a Peter Paul Career Development Professorship, the College of Arts & Sciences’ Wisneski Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the De La Torre Bueno Prize, one of the highest national honors for a book in the field of dance studies. She has served as a Provost’s Faculty Arts Fellow, and in 2015 was selected as Boston University’s United Methodist Scholar/Teacher of the Year. Professor Preston holds a doctorate and Master’s degree in Literatures in English, with a Women’s Studies Certification, from Rutgers University, and a Bachelor’s degree in English and Dance from Michigan State University.
Through extensive conversations about her ambitions for Kilichand Honors College, it was immediately evident that Professor Preston’s scholarly credentials, enthusiastic and innovative record of leadership, and passion for the interdisciplinary programming at the heart of the College’s mission make her exceptionally well suited to serve as its Director. Moreover, Professor Preston has demonstrated her ability to work collaboratively with faculty and deans across schools and departments, connect well with students and their families, and project a bold, creative vision for the College and its continued pedagogical growth as a liberal arts living-learning community within a major research university.
Professor Preston will assume the directorship of the Kilachand Honors College on January 1, 2017. We hope that you will join us in congratulating her as she prepares to take on her new role. We hope you will also join us in thanking Professor Dellheim for his exemplary intellectual leadership and administrative service to the Kilachand Honors College and in wishing him well as he returns to his responsibilities as a member of the faculty.
Finally, we want to express our gratitude to the members of the Kilachand Honors College Director Search Advisory Committee, whose considerable efforts and unwavering standards were vital to the success of the search. We look forward to building on the accomplishments seen at the Kilachand Honors College over the last five years and to an exciting future that further advances its standing as a premier intellectual destination and living-learning community for Boston University’s finest faculty and for top students from around the world.
Kilachand Honors College Director Search Advisory Committee
Chair:
Beth Loizeaux, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and Professor, Department of English, College of Arts & Sciences
Members:
Thomas Bifano, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering; and Director, Boston University Photonics Center
Anna Henchman, Associate Professor, Department of English, College of Arts & Sciences
Susan Jackson, Professor, Department of Romance Studies; and (then) Senior Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
Jamie Lim, Kilachand Alumnus, Class of 2014
Stephanie Watts, Associate Professor, Department of Information Systems, Questrom School of Business
Staff:
Ashley Sampson, Strategic Initiatives Specialist, Office of the Provost