The Divisional Deans play a leading role in academic, capital, and campaign planning for the Arts and Sciences divisions. They report directly to the executive vice president, and work with each other and the EVP to ensure the overall coordination of their efforts with the senior staff (especially within academic affairs).
They exercise supervision of academic departments, research centers, institutes and other major units in their division. This includes faculty business that consists of searches, hires, leaves and retentions. They also play a role in budgeting with setting salaries in conjunction with the respective chair, determining research support funding, and monitoring their division’s expenditures. Additionally, they manage renovations and space requests, ARC reviews and oversee research misconduct, conflict of interest, conflict of commitment and equal opportunity.
Dean of Humanities
Sarah Cole specializes in British literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, with an emphasis on the modernist period. Areas of interest include war and violence, history and memory, sexuality and the body, and Irish literature of the modernist period. She is the author of two books, At the Violet Hour: Modernism and Violence in England and Ireland (Oxford University Press, 2012) and Modernism, Male Friendship, and the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2003), and co-directs the NYNJ Modernism Seminar, a regional scholarly colloquium. She has published articles in journals such as ELH, Modern Fiction Studies, Modernism/Modernity, and PMLA, and has written essays for a variety of edited collections. Professor Cole received a B.A. in English from Williams College and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the recipient of a 2014 Guggeinheim Fellowship for a book project entitled "The Wells Era."
Dean of Science
Robert D. Mawhinney
Dean of Social Science
Fredrick Harris is Professor of Political Science and directs the Center on African-American Politics and Society. Professor Harris's research interests include American politics with a focus on race and politics, political participation, social movements, religion and politics, political development, and African-American politics. His publications include Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism, which was awarded the V.O. Key Award by the Southern Political Science Association, the Best Book Award by the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Best Book Award by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. He is also the co-author of Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism,1973-1994 with Valeria Sinclair-Chapman and Brian McKenzie, which received the W.E.B. DuBois Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and the Ralph Bunche Award from the American Political Science Association for the best book on ethnic and cultural pluralism.