May 10, 2005

Susan Smith Appointed Muir College Provost

By Pat JaCoby

The appointment of Susan Smith, faculty member of the Department of Visual Arts and past department chair, as provost of John Muir College at UCSD, has been announced by Chancellor Marye Anne Fox.

Smith has served on a wide array of campus-wide and departmental committees including the Muir College executive committee, the Department of Visual Arts undergraduate curriculum committee, and the Academic Senate general campus subcommittee on research. She currently serves on the search committee for the dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities.

“Professor Smith’s academic and administrative experience, together with her strong commitment to undergraduate education and UCSD’s college system, make her exceptionally well suited to provide leadership as provost of Muir College,” Chancellor Fox noted.

“It’s an honor to have been selected to carry forward Pat Ledden’s extraordinary legacy of service and spirit at Muir College,” Smith said. “I’m excited about working with Muir’s terrific students, staff and faculty to nurture the values of scholarship and community that have made this college such a special place.”

Mark Appelbaum, associate vice chancellor who chaired the search committee for Muir College provost, said that “Susan is exactly what the Search Committee was looking for as it conducted its search. She will bring a vitality and fresh academic outlook to the College.”

Smith joined the UCSD faculty in 1987.She is a highly regarded educator and administrator whose current research interests include secular art of the Middle Ages and issues involving the cognitive function of vision in medieval theology and art theory. She also has worked as a labor arbitrator and has co-authored two books and an educational film on labor relations.

She has been awarded numerous grants and awards, including a UCI Humanities Research Institute Fellowship for participation in the collaborative research project “Theorizing Visual Culture: Discourse, Discipline, Pedagogy.” Her book, The Power of Women: A Topos in Medieval Literature and Art, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1995. She is presently writing a book on the subject of medieval women as viewers of art.

Media Contact: Pat JaCoby, (858) 534-7404