Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Simon Bronner has accepted the position of Dean of the College of General Studies, effective July 1, 2019. He is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of American Studies and Folklore at the Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, where he served as department chair and director of the School of Humanities. Most recently, he held the Maxwell C. Weiner Distinguished Professorship of Humanities at Missouri University of Science of Technology. He has also taught at Harvard University, University of California at Davis, Dickinson College, Osaka University (Japan), and Leiden University (Netherlands). He is the author or editor of over 40 books on folklore and folklife, cultural history, and ethnology, including most recently the Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklife for Oxford University Press and The Practice of Folklore: Essays Toward a Theory of Tradition for the University Press of Mississippi. Among Simon’s awards are the Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award and Kenneth Goldstein Memorial Award for Academic Leadership from the American Folklore Society, the Mary Turpie Prize for program development from the American Studies Association, and the doctoral education award from the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools.

His administrative accomplishments include the revision of university-wide General Education requirements; the establishment of two endowed outreach centers: the Center for Pennsylvania Culture Studies and the Center for Holocaust and Jewish Studies; and the creation of new academic programs: certificate programs in Heritage and Museum Practice, Diversity Studies, Folklore & Ethnography; and an Integrated BA-MA program in American Studies. I am looking forward to working with Simon in his new role!

I would like to thank the Search and Screen Committee, chaired by Liam Callanan, along with vice chair Lisa Hager, for its outstanding work. I am also deeply grateful to Stephen Schmid for his astute leadership as Interim Dean during the restructuring period that led to the establishment of the new College of General Studies.

Take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

 

Date: June 24, 2019