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College faculty committees to assist with structure, curricula for 3 new schools
Designed to re-think how scholars can be brought together on issues emerging in a changing world, founding directors and faculty steering committees will begin implementing a reorganization plan that establishes three new schools in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The three new academic units are a School of Government, Politics and Global Studies; a School of Social Transformation; and a School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies.
These new intellectual ventures represent a third wave of creating schools in the college that transcend traditional boundaries and invent collaborative modes of teaching, research and learning. First announced Aug. 18, the reorganizational plan received final approval by the Arizona Board of Regents Academic Affairs Committee Nov. 20.
Since the initial announcement, deans, chairs, directors and faculty members in the college have been meeting to develop implementation steps and timelines.
“The college has a successful track record in creating academically powerful schools that transform the scholarly landscape in liberal arts and sciences,” says Quentin Wheeler, university vice president and dean of the college.
He cites the schools of Life Sciences; Earth and Space Exploration; Human Evolution and Social Change; Social and Family Dynamics; Materials; Geographical Sciences; and International Letters and Cultures as examples of the college’s strategic plan to embrace the New American University model by organizing faculties to confront real-world problems.
The timing for establishing this round of new schools was in part in response to dwindling financial resources.
“Given the reduction in state revenues, we took an approach that creates new ways to achieve academic success while addressing the need to streamline administration, preserve academic programs for students and optimize existing resources,” Wheeler says.
Steering committees comprised of faculty members, chairs and directors are in place to “breath life into the new schools,” says Linda Lederman, dean of social sciences, who will oversee the establishment of two of the schools: Government, Politics and Global Studies and the School of Social Transformation.
“The task of the steering committees is to take the concepts and create the realities and structure necessary for these new intellectual ventures,” she says.
“This is just the beginning,” notes Deborah Losse, dean of humanities. “The rest of the academic year will be devoted to the steering committees and subcommittees of faculty working together to develop cross-cutting curricula and educational and administrative structures.”
Losse will oversee the establishment of the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies – a working title likely to change as a result of the steering committee process. The names of the other two new schools may also change as their respective steering committees work through implementation plans.
“All of the units have long-standing graduate and undergraduate programs and students will benefit from the intersections of the disciplines in the new schools,” Losse says. “The integral strength of the programs will be maintained while enabling new curricula and research to emerge at these intersections.”
Lederman adds: “We and our students live in a world in which information is increasingly and immediately accessible; in which the intersections of ideas are commonplace. The structure of these new schools will allow students to examine those ideas as they exist in their daily lives.”
The School of Government, Politics and Global Studies will combine the political science department and the School of Global Studies. It will be under the leadership of Patrick Kenney, chair of political science.
This new school will build synergies to address the increasingly complex and global nature of issues related to government, political science, democracy and human rights.
“Professor Kenney’s leadership in the department, with its inherent commitment to democratic processes and his own study of democracy provide him with the experience and sensitivity to welcome the global studies faculty into a new partnership with political science scholars,” Lederman says.
The School of Social Transformation will combine four existing units: African and African American Studies; Asian Pacific American Studies; School of Justice and Social Inquiry; and Women and Gender Studies. It will be under the leadership of Mary Margaret Fonow, director of Women and Gender Studies.
The new school acknowledges the contributions from and interactions among the many diverse groups in American society. Understanding their impact on its transformation requires interactions among scholars with many perspectives.
“Professor Fonow brings to the leadership role a deep understanding of the intersections between race, class, gender and justice,” says Lederman. “Her own work in women and labor movements aptly positions her to encourage the interdependence among the units in the new school.”
The School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies will combine these three academic units to create a research and teaching environment that cuts across the intellectual areas of the college. It will be under the leadership of Mark von Hagen, chair of the history department.
“Professor von Hagen is uniquely suited to assume the role of director since his doctoral studies come out of two disciplines – history and comparative literature,” says Losse. “His research interests bring together culture and political and historical phenomena, including the intersections of war, human rights and cultural texts.”
Degree programs or certificate programs will continue in philosophy, history, religious studies, political science, global studies, women and gender studies, justice and social inquiry, African and African American studies, and Asian Pacific American studies.
One of the anticipated outcomes from the reorganization, however, will be several interesting new courses and degrees, with new prefixes, according to Losse. For example in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies the steering committee is discussing a course on foundational texts by eminent historians, philosophers and religious thinkers from antiquity to the present, which will cut across the disciplines yet be taught by faculty experts from each area.
Dean Lederman also stresses the benefits for students. “The rich and complex curricular issues that will be addressed by the faculty in these new schools will provide students with exemplars of how to deal with complexity in their everyday lives.”
“We are looking to the faculty and founding directors to develop exciting new programs for students that are organized around questions about complex issues that could lead to new discoveries,” Dean Wheeler adds. “These new schools will allow our students to continue receiving a foundation in liberal arts and sciences while they prepare to work in a complex and changing world.”
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the second oldest and the largest college at Arizona State University. Some 19,224 students are enrolled in college majors in fall 2008. In addition to deans Wheeler, Losse and Lederman, are Sid Bacon, dean of natural sciences, and Alan Artibise, executive dean. Collectively they oversee more than 60 schools, departments, institutes and research centers.
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