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Past Messages from the Dean

From August to May, the Dean distributes a monthly newsletter that includes updates for faculty and staff. Each newsletter also includes a message from the Dean. Messages are archived below from the past three issues.

To see the most recent message from the dean, please visit the faculty and staff news page.

January 2025

Dear Colleagues,

Because the Jewish and Gregorian calendars don’t align it doesn’t always work out this way, but this year Martin Luther King, Jr. Day occurs at the same time that the annual cycle of weekly readings from the Pentateuch (Torah) has reached the three portions that narrate the story of Exodus from Egypt (Exodus chapters 1-13). The coincidence this year reminds us that the parallels between the biblical story and the experiences of African Americans from Emancipation in 1862 through the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 60s have informed some of the most powerful expressions of defiance and hope in US history, ranging from the African American spiritual, “Go Down Moses,” to Dr. King’s historic “Mountaintop” speech, which he delivered just a day before his assassination in April 1968.

It is especially important to be mindful of this legacy and its implications at a place like Brandeis, established as it was by the Jewish American community in the immediate aftermath of the Shoah amidst ongoing anti-Semitic persecution in the US, and characterized since its inception by the mission of healing the world and opening doors to those who have historically been excluded—Jews, but also other minoritized and disadvantaged communities. Indeed, now more than ever it is critical to embrace and reaffirm this heritage and history, not simply to congratulate ourselves for what we have accomplished, but to acknowledge that the work of liberation is an ongoing process, one that moves forwards—and, alas, backwards—in fits and starts. The resurgence of anti-Semitism in the last several years and the growing attacks on diversity and inclusion at the institutional, local, state, and federal levels are sobering reminders that we cannot afford to slacken in our efforts to achieve a more just, inclusive world, free of hate and intolerance, celebrating difference in all its forms.

Brandeis offers a very specific version of the parallels between the Jewish and African American experiences within the academic world, and I’ve been thinking about these correspondences in relation to the proposal President Levine brought to the community at the Faculty Meeting on January 17 for restructuring our academic organization. Brandeis is one of very few universities in the United States that has full-fledged departments (as opposed to programs) devoted to the study of the historical and contemporary experiences of both communities: NEJS and AAAS. The NEJS department was established at Brandeis in 1953, just five years after Brandeis came into existence. It took longer—and importantly, a public protest by students and faculty—to create AAAS, which was founded in 1969. But since their establishment, both departments have been trailblazers in their respective areas, homes to some of the most influential scholars in these explicitly inter- and trans-disciplinary fields of study. Both departments have been, and continue to be, remarkable not only because of their world-class faculty, but because they have drawn strength from the multiple disciplines that make them up and have provided extraordinary models for how scholars trained in different fields can learn from, and work with, one another to broaden and deepen the scope of inquiry.

I don’t think it’s accidental that these two departments—and I will add another department that offers the same model of interdisciplinarity, WGS, which officially became a department in 2020—that these three departments have modeled a more open, collaborative approach to teaching and research. All three of these departments are committed to the study of groups—Jews, African Americans, Women, Non-Binary and Queer folk—who have historically been excluded and isolated, denied access, and ghettoized. And they have responded to that disconnection by forging defiantly enriching ties both within their respective units and in collaboration with other programs and departments.

We can learn a lot from these departments as we engage in the daunting but essential task of reimagining Brandeis. We can draw inspiration from the liberatory academic projects that they each embody. And we can even take some solace in the fitful progress each has made, experiencing setbacks and resistance even as they continue to innovate and evolve.

I look forward to working with you in the coming months as we take on the hard work of breaking down barriers, building structures that include more than they exclude, and innovating to create a new model for higher education in the Twenty-first century.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey

December 2024

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you know far better than I, Brandeis has confronted difficult times before. We have faced financial crises of varying degrees and, nevertheless, we have persisted. Or perhaps more accurately, we have met those challenges and figured out ways not only to survive but thrive.

The challenges we face now may be different than in the past, but as some of you long-timers have been reminding me in recent months, scrappiness and improvisation have been part of our DNA since our founding in 1948. I am repeatedly amazed by the many creative programs that have emerged over the years despite—or in response to—those challenges. And I find it helpful to think about these innovations in times like these, not only for the fortitude and faith they can provide, but to learn from them some of the productive strategies that can serve us well going forward.

The last financial crisis gave rise to our wonderfully successful business major, despite many reservations. Indeed, in its early implementation the number of majors was capped for fear that it would be in such high demand that it would draw students away from more traditional liberal arts fields of study. What we have found, instead, is that while it has become one of our most popular majors, nearly all the students who choose it combine it with another area of concentration that enriches and broadens their academic experience in ways that undergraduates who study business in a business school never can.

Following that same economic turndown, several departments created new MA programs that enjoyed considerable success and generated additional revenues that could be reinvested to strengthen the institution. Though we have seen enrollments drop in some of those programs in recent years (as part of broader national trends), there are early signs that some of these programs are already rebounding. With further adjustments, especially to the fee structures of these programs, I believe there is further room for growth and expansion, both in person and online.

Despite numerous challenges, and with little additional internal funding, Brandeis converted its program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS) into a new department with a robust and dedicated national advisory board that has enriched not only our undergraduate academic program but also offers a stand-alone master's degree in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and ten joint MA programs in which graduate students focus on WGS and another discipline. What’s more, interdepartmental programs in Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies and in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies were created that have demonstrated how, despite being resource constrained, we remain committed to staying engaged and keeping current with new interdisciplinary developments.

In response to significant shifts in job opportunities for new PhDs in English and with the support of a grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Brandeis English Department has been forging a new, creative way forward with its Connected PhD program, which supports an array of professional development experiences for students in areas that have historically been absent from humanities graduate education. These experiences allow students to cultivate distinctive professional identities and explore diverse career paths. Many other institutions are following Brandeis’s lead in this new approach to graduate education.

Other innovations that we have been able to develop thanks to generous support from donors and foundations include our Kay Fellow program, which has been truly unparalleled in bringing new scholars to campus, diversifying our faculty, and broadening our offerings at the undergraduate and graduate levels. And the program has been instrumental in helping us keep some of these talented new colleagues at Brandeis beyond the period of their post-doctoral appointments.

And the Samuels Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (aka COMPACT) has reshaped the way Brandeis students engage with their communities through volunteer work, internships, and activism. It now serves as a national model for making ethical and respectful community engagement a central pillar of the undergraduate experience, establishing engaged scholarship and pedagogy as signature strengths of the university, and creating transformative social change through collective action.

And finally, I want to mention the Brandeis Justice League, an informal community of practice for Brandeis faculty who are committed to supporting one another in the cultivation of equitable, inclusive, and accessible courses that inspire deep and meaningful learning for all Brandeis students. Members of the Justice League are real change agents within their departments and programs and have been instrumental in shifting our instructional efforts from a deficit-based approach to an asset-based approach that is far more generative and successful.

These examples are certainly not intended to be exhaustive, and I am sure there are instances of which I am not even aware. I would love to hear from you if you have others you’d like to share.

The months ahead will be unsettling for many of us. But I am excited by the prospect of working with all of you to reimagine a Brandeis for the next 75 years that is just as innovative and forward thinking as it was in its first 75 years.

Wishing you all a relaxing and restorative winter break, along with a joyous holiday season however you choose to celebrate it.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey

November 2024

Dear Colleagues,

I am occasionally asked what I do in my role as a dean and, more specifically, what my typical day is like. Though I usually answer that there is no such thing as a typical day in the life of a dean, the truth is that it would be just as accurate to say that most of my days are filled with meetings. Meetings with my team, meetings with faculty, meetings with senior leadership, meetings with staff, meetings with students, meetings with visitors to the campus, standing meetings, ad hoc meetings. You get the picture.

But when I moved into administrative work, I made a promise to myself that I would not completely forego one of the primary reasons I went into academia to begin with, which was how it would provide me with regular opportunities to learn new things, not just in my chosen discipline of literary studies, but across the spectrum of scholarly and creative pursuits. In the last week or so I’ve been delighted and enriched by my attendance at a number of the events that happen regularly on our campus, and I want to share with you some of those experiences as a way of celebrating the vibrant intellectual and cultural life at Brandeis.

I joined a standing-room-only crowd of students, faculty, and staff at Rapaporte Treasure Hall to listen to a powerful conversation between AAAS Professor Shoniqua Roach and the extraordinary Hortense Spillers, groundbreaking Black Feminist scholar and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor at Vanderbilt University (who earned her PhD in English from Brandeis in 1974). The exchange, so skillfully managed by Professor Roach, was moving and far-reaching, touching upon several aspects of Professor Spillers’s enormously influential scholarship and her important centering of gender and sexuality within the broader discourse of critical race studies. They left us with many rich and provocative ideas to chew on further.

I was completely riveted by a brilliant presentation by Dr. Pamela E. Harris, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, on “The Role of Undergraduate Research Experiences in Developing a Sense of Belonging.” Dr. Harris regaled us with her personal story as a Mexican-American immigrant and first-generation college student (whose parents had not completed high school), charting her path from taking 7 th -grade level math in her first year of community college to earning her PhD and her long romance with the beautiful science of mathematics. Her enthusiasm for her work was infectious and, even though I’m sure I didn’t fully grasp some of the mathematical concepts she discussed, it was impossible not to appreciate how the deep engagement she brought to her work with students was central to the success of those students, many of whom have similar backgrounds to her own. It was a truly inspirational event.

As part of its series celebrating the recent publication of Professor Ramie Targoff’s widely heralded book, Shakespeare’s Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance, the Mandel Center for the Humanities hosted a panel of three of our Brandeis colleagues, Professor Matthew Fraleigh (GRALL), Professor Ilana Szobel (NEJS), and Professor Harleen Singh (GRALL/WGS), on the topic of “Women’s Writing in a Global Frame.” We were privileged to listen in on a rich conversation about how gender informs and shapes literary production in early modern Sinitic Japanese poetry, contemporary Israeli and Palestinian texts by disabled women writers pushing for visibility and inclusion within their communities, and how the category of “the literary” demands a broader scope within the context of South Asian women artists. It was, alas, all too brief a time to delve deeply into any of these large and important areas of inquiry, but the discussion left me hungry for more, and I look forward to continuing these conversations.

On a recent evening I attended a fascinating lecture by former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, and Ambassador to the European Union, Stuart Eizenstat, who came to Brandeis to talk about his new book, The Art of Diplomacy: How American Negotiators Reached Historic Agreements that Changed the World. Having served in six administrations (both Democratic and Republican) and played significant roles in some of the most important peace negotiations of the last five decades, there are few career diplomats who could offer the broad and deep perspective on the role of the US in international affairs. In both his formal presentation and the ensuing conversation with Professor Eva Bellin, Ambassador Eizenstat offered rich and surprising insights into the absolutely crucial role thoughtful, empathetic, open-minded and sustained diplomacy must play. As we are all too painfully aware now, these lessons seem more important than ever.

And speaking of timely, I also paid a visit to the Kniznick Gallery in the Women’s Studies Research Center to take in their Fall exhibit, “Wrongs & RIGHTS,” which has been co-curated by Laura Dvorkin and Maynard Monrow of the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection. Bringing together five decades of work supporting the intergenerational battle for reproductive rights, the exhibit presents more than twenty pieces across a range of media created by artists from diverse backgrounds and identities to present this powerful struggle in moving and meaningful ways. Definitely worth a visit!

Of course, there are many more events, performances, and exhibits like these throughout the year and my examples are not meant to suggest that others are less important, interesting, or valuable. I do think it’s a helpful reminder, however, of what a rich, intellectually stimulating community we have at Brandeis and how fortunate we are to have colleagues engaged in such interesting work and with connections to others from outside our own campus.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey

October 2024

Dear Colleagues,

As I wrote in my earlier communication, following the announcement of President Liebowitz’s resignation, the uncertainties that inevitably come with institutional change can be unsettling for all of us, irrespective of our feelings about that decision. When such internal ruptures are accompanied by escalations in international conflicts, along with anxieties about the looming presidential election, the overall impact can be quite destabilizing and distracting. This is true, of course, not only for faculty and staff, but also for our students.

Now that we are a little over a month into the new academic year, and work is beginning to pile up for everyone, I ask that you invest some of your time and energy in our shared project of helping our students feel supported and welcomed as members of our community. Research has demonstrated that a sense of belonging is one of the most significant factors in student persistence and success. We all have a role to play in creating that sense of belonging for our students, irrespective of their backgrounds, identities, or affiliations. Our colleagues in the Center for Teaching and Learning have created this slide, which lists an array of resources available to students in need of specific kinds of help. Please consider beginning one of your classes in the next week or so by showing this slide to your students and taking a moment to let them know you care about them and are here to offer your own support. And certainly one important way to demonstrate our care is to be present for our students by committing to spend time on campus, in our offices, at co-curricular events, and elsewhere. I know you’ve heard this from me before, but I really do believe that being on campus is essential to building and sustaining our community.

As I have indicated in some of my earlier communications, there are an array of programs offered by different groups and units across campus focused on current events. We have collected and listed those events at the following links: the conflict in the Middle East and the upcoming elections. These pages are regularly updated with new events and programs; if you know of anything we haven’t managed to capture on either of these pages, please let us know so that we can include them.

While I am on the general topic of students’ sense of belonging, I also want to mention the specific challenges we are facing with respect to the increased need for various kinds of accommodations. I am aware of the additional burdens these accommodations can place on faculty. We will continue to to foster a collaborative relationship with Kim Johnson and her team in the office of Student Accessibility Support, providing the support our students need but also the support our faculty deserve. I want to encourage you to learn more about the principles of Universal Design and how you might incorporate these principles in your own classroom. It does take an initial investment of time and effort, but the more we can prepare for these issues of access ahead of time, the fewer ad hoc accommodations will be necessary in the long run.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to wish a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year to all who will be celebrating Rosh Hashanah this week. As John and Yoko used to sing, Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey

September 2024

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to greet you at the start of the new semester. As is the case for many of you, I am guessing, the feelings of excitement and anticipation that I experience at the beginning of each new academic year never get old. Despite the challenges we have ahead of us, the opportunities for renewal and discovery that come every fall always fill me with hope.

And there are, to be sure, many significant challenges in the coming year, as we continue the collaborative process of evaluating how we allocate our staff and faculty budgets that we began last spring. I remain committed to supporting the extraordinarily dedicated work all of you do, both faculty and staff, in support of our primary missions of teaching and research. As I told our incoming class at the Fall Convocation, they have chosen to attend a university that is distinctive in important ways, most significantly in its compelling combination of an internationally-renowned research institution, filled with some of the world’s most accomplished artists and scholars, and an equally distinctive commitment to offering a broad-based and intensive liberal arts education. I believe strongly in both of these facets of Brandeis’s identity and will continue to work with you to preserve and strengthen them.

I look forward to seeing many of you on campus in the next few weeks, including at first the Faculty Meeting (Sept 6), where we introduce our new colleagues, and the Mandel Celebration for New Faculty Books (Sept 12), not to mention many of the other early Fall receptions and events.

Speaking of new faculty, in the School of Arts & Sciences, we are delighted to welcome the following colleagues this year:

Jasmine Alvarado, Assistant Professor of Education
Daniel Álvarez-Gavela, Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Michael Berman, Visiting Professor of Anthropology
Bradley Cardozo, Lectuer and Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Transpacific Studies
Paneshe Chigumadzi, Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies
Beatriz Cobeta, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies
Jorah Dannenberg, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Joseph Delfino, Lecturer in Computer Science
Grazia Ting Deng, Lecturer in Anthropology
Manju Edachira, Madeleine Haas Russell Postdoctoral Fellow in Critical Caste Studies
James Heazlewoord-Dale, Lecturer in the University Writing Program
Devadatta Ganesh Hedge, Lecturer in Mathematics
Lu Heintz, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts
Michael Heller, Associate Professor of Music
Krysten Hill, Jacob Ziskind Poet-in Residence in the Department of English
Alex Johnson, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
Marjan Kamali, Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English
Yael Kenan, Lecturer in the University Writing Program
Connor Kennedy, Instructor in Mathematics
Ethan King, Lecturer in the University Writing Program
Jonathan Krones, Associate Professor of Engineering
Clara Lyon, Associate Professor of the Practice of Music and Violinist in the Lydian String Quartet
Michael McGlin, Assistant Professor of Classical and Early Mediterranean Studies
Joshua Meisel, Assistant Professor of Biology and Ting Tsung and Wei Fing Chao Endowed Chair in Neuroscience
Shahriar Mirzadeh, Lecturer in Mathematics
Ju Hyoung Mun, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Liora Norwich, Leon A. Jick Chair and Director of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program and Associate Professor of the Practice
Yesmar Oyarzun, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Josh Wolk, Professor of the Practice of Journalism
Wen Yu, Assistant Professor of History

Learn more about these impressive and highly accomplished scholars and teachers on our website.

In addition, I extend a warm welcome to new part-time faculty who are joining us this fall:

Kimberly Barton (Sociology)
Megan Burns (HSSP)
Karen Cohen (NEJS)
Katie Colford (Fine Arts)
Kim Craig (Anthropology)
Marissa DiGirolamo (Psychology)
Ashley Dunn (WGSS)
Ketian Guan (Economics)
Sean Hwang (Economics)
McKee Krumpak (Mathematics)
Ryan Lundell-Creagh (Psychology)
Eileen McNamara (Journalism)
Christopher Ostrom (Theater Arts)
Samantha Pickette (NEJS)
Marty Samuels (Biology)
Karry Sarkissian (GRALL)
Joseph Silcox (Sociology)
Mercedes Villalonga (Psychology)
Yuya Wang (Economics)
Maggie Wong (Fine Arts)

The establishment of the new centralized administrative structures supporting the Creative Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences will certainly require some changes in past practices. We will be monitoring how well these units fulfill their expected functions over the course of the coming year, making adjustments where they are necessary and possible. Thank you in advance for your patience and collaboration in what will be a learning experience for all of us.

Other ongoing projects for which we will providing regular updates and inviting further feedback include (but are certainly not limited to) the Brandeis Core 5-year review, the Working Group on AI in Teaching and Learning, and programming around the conflict in the Middle East and the upcoming presidential election. So please stay tuned.

I am committed to remaining available and accessible to all of you. If you have something you’d like to discuss with me—or if you simply want to tell me about yourself and your work—please don’t hesitate to reach out to make an appointment. I am also continuing the practice I began last year of having monthly open invitations to join me for lunch at the Faculty Club. The first of these is scheduled for noon on September 12. No need to sign up, just join us at the large round table we’ve reserved for these lunches.

Wishing you all a rewarding and successful semester.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey

May 2024

Dear Colleagues,

This month marks the end of my first academic year as Dean of Arts and Sciences and it seems like a good time to take a step back and reflect on the experience.

I think it’s fair to say that I did not anticipate how challenging a year it would be. Between the significant tensions that arose on campus in the wake of Hamas’s attacks and Israel’s military response and the budgetary challenges we are now facing across the university, I don’t know that I can point to a solid week of my tenure thus far that could be described as “business as usual.” Not that there ever is such a thing as a typical week in the deanery, where we are always trying to strike a balance between managing the predictable routines of the academic year and addressing the unanticipated crises or opportunities (big and small) that inevitably arise. And, of course, there is always the need to carve out time to think and plan beyond the most immediate and obvious demands—there never seems to be enough of that.

As I’ve observed to some of you over the year, while I would never have wished for any of these substantial challenges, the silver lining to all of them is that they have accelerated the pace at which I’ve been able to get to know many of you and to learn about what matters most to you; to see just how dedicated you are to the work we do at Brandeis—and how good you are at it; and to understand what makes this place so special.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my first year and, while I don’t want to rehearse them here, I do continue to learn from them even as I keep making new ones. I am grateful to those who have given me the grace to acknowledge my errors and the space to make amends, even as I do appreciate your willingness to call me on my missteps—really! I can’t get better at my job if I don’t know where I need to improve. I strongly believe that we must model humility and open- mindedness to our students and feel it is among my chief responsibilities as Dean to set an example.

Most importantly, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the people who make it possible for me to fulfill my duties, starting with the team in the DAS office. Kathleen McMahan works quietly but oh-so-effectively behind the scenes, ensuring the smooth internal operations of our office and keeping me on task, expertly assisted by Brynn Sibley and Kayla Whitehurst. Shannon Kearns is simply superb at all things operational and administrative. First Wendy Cadge and now Charles Golden have been extraordinary deans, partners, and counsellors in the work we do in support of graduate studies. Without Joel Christensen (assisted by Alicia Hyland and Heather Young) and Olga Papaemmanouil (along with Lauren Buckley) I honestly do not know how I would have gotten through the year—their wisdom and perspective, not to mention their hard work, have been essential. I am grateful for my partnership with Dean of Academic Services, Lori Tenser. And I am delighted to welcome our new A&S development officer, Hannah Taytslin Devine, who will be a key partner in our increased fund-raising efforts going forward. I also want to thank Division Heads Bulbul Chakraborty, Caren Irr, and Aïda Yuen Wong for all their work and support, with a special shout-out to Bulbul as she steps down from the role at the end of this academic year. Finally, I want to recognize the dedication of all the departmental and program leaders, too many to mention here.

Thanks to all of you. I am so proud and thankful to be your colleague.

Wishing you all a restful, restorative, and productive summer. I look forward to seeing you back on campus in the Fall.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey