Fulbright Dean Candidates to Visit Campus in January and February

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Five candidates for dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas will visit campus over the next five weeks for interviews and public forums. During the forums, each will speak on “Moving in the Right Direction: The Role and Future of Arts and Sciences Colleges.”

James Coleman, vice provost for research and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Rice University, will speak from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 24, in Giffels Auditorium, Old Main. Coleman received his doctorate from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University in 1987. He has served as the vice chancellor for research at the University of Missouri-Columbia and as vice president for research and business development at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev. At Rice, he is responsible for developing a strategic plan to increase research funding and support faculty seeking federal and private support. His research focus is the ecological effects of environmental changes. The author of 78 articles, he has also been the principal or co-principal investigator for approximately $40 million in grants and cooperative agreements.

UPDATE: Robin Roberts, provost fellow and former associate dean and director of interdisciplinary programs at Louisiana State University, was to have spoken on Feb. 2. Due to inclement weather, her visit is being rescheduled. Roberts received her doctorate in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985. She is the 1988 recipient of the Russel B. Nye Award, presented annually to the author of the best essay published in the Journal of Popular Culture. She wrote a successful $628,342 grant from the Institute of International Education to support undergraduate education in Chinese and Arabic. She is the author of five books, including Anne McCaffrey: A Life With Dragons and Sexual Generations: Star Trek: The Next Generation and Gender, as well as 25 articles, reviews and essays. She is a referee for several publishers, including Oxford University Press, the Ohio State University Press and Syracuse University Press.

Al Boggess, head of the department of mathematics at Texas A&M University, will speak from 3:45 to 4:45 on Monday, Feb. 7, in Giffels Auditorium. He received his doctorate in mathematics from Rice University in 1979. His research interests include complex variables and harmonic analysis. He has served as chair on the National Science Foundation Workshop on Undergraduate Recruiting for mathematics and engineering and the NSF Review Panel for the Mathematical Biology Institute at Ohio State University. He has received numerous federal grants, including two NSF grants totaling $1.8 million for research experiences and mentoring for undergraduates. He is the author of 22 articles and co-author or author of six books.

Polly Hofmann, professor and associate dean for faculty affairs at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, will speak from 4 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10, in Giffels Auditorium. She received her doctorate in physiology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1987. She oversees faculty recruitment, appointments, promotion and tenure, budget resources, retention and faculty development at the health science center. She is the recipient of a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship and the Upjohn Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Heart Research. She has won numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. She has served on the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology: Heart and is a member of the International Society for Heart Research. The author or co-author of 38 articles, she has served as chair of the NIH Special Emphasis Panel on Cardiovascular Disease.

Ron Jackson, professor and head of the department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will speak from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 17, in Giffels Auditorium. Jackson received his doctorate in rhetoric and intercultural communication from Howard University in 1996. At the University of Illinois, he has also served as the associate dean of research and faculty development. He is the recipient of grants from the Penn State University Research and Graduate Studies Office and the Council for European Studies. He is the Eastern Communication Association Distinguished Research Fellow and the recipient of the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the National Communication Association’s international and intercultural communication and culture division for his book Scripting the Black Masculine Body. He is on the editorial board of Africana Studies, the Journal of Black Studies, the Review of Communication and Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. He is the author or co-author of four books or monographs, seven edited books, 24 chapters and 28 articles.

Complete vitas for all of the candidates are available online at http://fulbright.uark.edu/DeanSearch.php