Appointment of Professor Daniel Lee Kleinman as Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
I am delighted to announce the successful completion of a national-level search for the position of Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs and the appointment of Professor Daniel Lee Kleinman. Daniel succeeds Professor Tim Barbari, who stepped down from his administrative responsibilities to return to the faculty in the College of Engineering this past summer. As the senior officer reporting directly to the University Provost with responsibility for assuring that BU’s graduate programs support the aspirational goals of our strategic plan, Daniel will work collaboratively with the faculty, academic leadership, and members of the community to continue building excellence in graduate education at Boston University. Daniel’s appointment is effective January 1, 2017, and in addition to his primary administrative duties in the Office of the Provost, he will hold a faculty appointment in the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Daniel comes to BU from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he was Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology and served as Senior Associate Dean, and previously as Associate Dean for the Social Sciences, in the Graduate School. At UW, he led important initiatives to develop multi-year support packages for the interdisciplinary training of graduate students, to enhance the flexibility of graduate fellowships to bolster recruitment, and to broaden leadership and professional development opportunities for graduate students across the disciplines. He brings a breadth of knowledge and experience to the task of convening important discussions around graduate learning and assessment, program evaluation, PhD education and new program development. He is well-versed in national trends in graduate education and emerging best practices including the evolving character and format of the dissertation and strategies for developing and retaining increasingly diverse graduate student populations.
A sociologist by training, Daniel is a recognized leader in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies whose work has been supported by competitive grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. A major area of focus for his scholarship is the social organization of scientific research and the transformation of higher education in the U.S. In addition to his practical expertise leading graduate initiatives, Daniel’s research and scholarship has allowed him to cultivate a deep understanding of scholarly cultures across disciplines including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering.
Daniel holds a BA in Social History from Haverford College and an MS and PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In addition to his administrative roles in the Graduate School at UW, Daniel served as Chair of the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology (2008 to 2012) and as Director of the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies (2007 to 2012). Prior to joining the faculty at Wisconsin in 2000, Daniel held faculty positions at the Georgia Institute of Technology (1994 to 2000) and the University of Houston, Clear Lake (1993 to 1994).
Daniel’s selection resulted from a rigorous search and a competitive pool that included review of ninety-two applications for the position of Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs, before narrowing the field to six strong candidates, and identification of three finalists. Daniel’s disciplinary breadth, command of contemporary issues in graduate education, demonstrated administrative and operational expertise in a similarly complex research university, and his commitment to developing novel approaches to interdisciplinary graduate education make him especially well-positioned to lead graduate initiatives at Boston University and to work collaboratively across our schools and colleges. He is an outstanding scholar and an experienced, effective administrator and I am confident that his leadership will further position us to advance excellence in graduate education at BU.
I am delighted that we have been successful in recruiting Daniel Kleinman to Boston University; please join me in welcoming him to the BU community.
Appointment of Professor Daniel Lee Kleinman as Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs – 11.18.16