Suzanne Keen. Photo Courtesy of Washington & Lee University.
On Dec. 21, in an email to the campus community, President Wippman announced the selection of Suzanne Keen as Hamilton’s new Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Keen will come to Hamilton’s campus from Washington and Lee University in Virginia, where she had served as Dean of the College and the Thomas H. Broadus Professor of English and Creative Writing.
Dr. Keen received her A.B. from Brown University in 1984, and earned an A.M. in Creative Writing from the same university 1986.
She continued her graduate education at Harvard University, where she earned an M.A. and P.h.D. in English in 1987 and 1990, respectively.
Following the conference of doctorate, she began her academic career at Yale University, where she served as an Assistant Professor of English for five years. Dr. Keen then moved onto Washington and Lee University, where she served as an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and later full Professor of English.
In 2005, Dr. Keen was appointed as the Thomas H. Broadus Professor of English and in 2010 was appointed as Chair of English, a position she held until her appointment as Dean of the College in 2013. In addition, Dr. Keen served as a member of the faculty of the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College during summers between 2003 and 2010.
Dr. Keen was selected from a pool of four finalists, all of whom made visits to Hamilton College’s campus over the course of the fall semester. All three other applicants came from small liberal arts colleges, and two held senior positions at the colleges in which they are employed.
Dr. Deirdre d’Albertis of Bard College served as the Associate Dean of the College and as a Professor of English. Jerusha B. Detweiler-Bedell of Lewis and Clark College served as the Director of the Teaching and Excellence Program and as a Professor of Psychology. Dr. Maria Tapias of Grinnell College serves as the Associate Dean of the College and a Professor of Anthropology.
The College’s search committee was chaired by Professor of History Lisa Trivedi. The process for selecting the new Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs was extensive and included multiple opportunities for members of the campus community to meet the candidates.
On December 6th, the College hosted all of the candidates for an hour and twenty-minute of candidate remarks followed by a Q&A session. In addition, the College created a survey made available through email for attendees to provide their feedback on the candidates.
The current holder of the position of Dean of Faculty and Vice-President for Academic Affairs is Dr. Margaret Gentry, who is serving in the position on an interim basis since her appointment by President Wippman in July 2016. Dr. Gentry also serves as the William R. Kenan Jr. of Professor of Women and Gender Studies.
The Dean of Faculty serves as the chief academic officer of the College. In this capacity, they oversee all of the instructional departments of the college, such as managing grants and equipment, advising faculty members on their research and teaching and advising the President of faculty hiring decisions. In addition, the Dean oversees several committees of the College.
The Dean acts as the Chair of the Academic Council in addition to serving on the Committee on Academic Policy, the Faculty Committee on Admission and Financial Aid, the Faculty Committee on Budget and Finance, the Committee on the Library and Information Technology and the Planning Committee. Furthermore, several parts of the College report to the Dean, including Academic Support Services, Athletics, Institutional Research, Off-Campus Study, Opportunity Programs, the Registrar and the Wellin Museum.
