Three faculty have been named to the newly created position of Faculty Fellows in the Office of the Provost, announced Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.
Marion G. Crain, J.D., the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law; Mark Rollins, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy in Arts & Sciences; and Elzbieta Sklodowska, Ph.D., the Randolph Family Professor in Arts & Sciences and chair of the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures in Arts & Sciences, took on the additional responsibilities, effective July 1.
They are working with Macias on important University topics such as increasing faculty leadership opportunities, particularly among women and underrepresented faculty; strengthening diversity on both the Danforth and Medical campuses, including making diversity an important criterion in searches; encouraging more interdisciplinary cooperation between WUSTL centers, programs, departments and schools to enhance teaching, scholarship and service; and developing undergraduate and graduate curriculum with an emphasis on internationalization.
“Professors Crain, Rollins and Sklodowska are outstanding faculty members and highly effective leaders in their respective areas,” said Macias, who also is the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences. “They all have a keen interest in Washington University issues and in building a stronger institution.
“It is important that the University have faculty input on these key, challenging issues,” Macias said. “Our new faculty fellows bring different experiences from their academic fields as well as varying perspectives from their departments and schools. I appreciate their commitment and their valuable insight.”
Crain
When Crain was installed as the Rutledge professor in April 2009, Kent D. Syverud, J.D., dean of the School of Law and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor, referred to her scholarship and teaching as being “animated by a passion for justice, rigor in analysis and a healthy seasoning of the down-to-earth knowledge of how real people work and live.
“She is a wonderful citizen of Washington University,” Syverud said.
Crain’s scholarship examines the relationships among gender, work and class status, with a particular emphasis on collective action.
She is the co-author of two textbooks, “Labor Relations Law: Cases and Materials” and “Work Law: Cases and Materials,” and is co-editor of “Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream.”
As part of her commitment to legal education, Crain serves on the executive committee of the Labor Law Group, an international collective of law professors dedicated to advancing pedagogy and scholarship on labor and employment law.
She also is on the editorial board of the Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, a peer-reviewed journal focusing on labor and employment law.
At WUSTL, Crain serves on the School of Law’s Advisory Committee to the Provost on Women Faculty and is a member of the provost’s Diversity Work Group. In January, she will become director of the law school’s Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.
Prior to joining the law faculty in 2008, Crain was the Paul Eaton Professor of Law and director of the Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Rollins
Rollins joined WUSTL in 1987 as an assistant professor of philosophy. He was named an associate professor in 1994, chair in 2002 and professor in 2006.
His academic interests include topics at the intersection of aesthetics and cognitive science. These include theories of picture perception, the role of attention in aesthetic experience and a cognitive psychology of artistic style.
Rollins, who also is a professor in the Philosophy-Neurosciences-Psychology Program in Arts & Sciences, is the author of “Mental Imagery: On the Limits of Cognitive Science.”
He is editor of “Danto and His Critics” and co-editor of “Begetting Images: Studies in the Art and Science of Symbol Production.” He is working on a book on perception and pictorial art.
In 1997, he was named associate dean in University College and director of the Summer School. While director, the school introduced faculty teaching grants, increased enrollment and developed a strong high-school summer honors program.
As chair of the philosophy department, Rollins has overseen an impressive period of growth. In the past seven years, 14 full-time faculty members have joined the department.
The department also has risen significantly in the rankings of philosophy graduate programs, and the number of applications to its graduate program has quadrupled during this time.
Active on many WUSTL committees, Rollins has served as chair of the Faculty Senate Council and the Faculty Council for Arts & Sciences and as a member of the Arts & Sciences Academic Planning Committee.
He also was chair of the Arts & Sciences Curriculum Review Committee, whose recommendations will result in major curriculum changes.
Sklodowska
Sklodowska knows WUSTL from all points of view — as a graduate student, a faculty member and an administrator.
After earning a master’s degree in Spanish in 1979 at the University of Warsaw in her native Poland, she came to WUSTL, where she earned a doctorate in Spanish in 1983.
After academic positions elsewhere, she returned in 1991 as associate professor of Spanish. In 2003, she was named the inaugural holder of the Randolph professorship.
As chair of Romance languages and literatures for six years, Sklodowska leads a department as diverse as the four languages that are housed there — French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
She has said of the experience: “Every day I learn valuable lessons from the interaction between diverse cultures, experiences and perspectives.”
Her fields of interest include 19th- and 20th-century Caribbean narrative, literary and cultural theory, Cuban narrative and culture, poetics and politics of memory, and testimonial literature.
Sklodowska is the author of four books and co-author or co-editor of three books.
She also has written more than 80 articles and book chapters. She is general co-editor of the refereed journal Revista de Estudios Hispanicos and serves on several editorial boards.
Her awards for writing include “Premio Plural” and “Discurso Literario” for best critical essays and the Northeast Modern Language Association award for her book on Latin American testimonial narrative.
She has served on numerous University committees and currently is a member of the Provost’s Diversity Work Group and the Arts & Sciences Academic Planning Committee.