Initiatives

The Provost has introduced new Faculty Initiatives encouraging participation, ideas and volunteers within the Dickinson community. Current Initiatives are below.

The Inaugural Neil B. Weissman Chair in the Liberal Arts

The Neil B. Weissman Chair in the Liberal Arts was created to honor faculty who’s work sits at the very intersection of what we hold most dear at Dickinson: interdisciplinary education in the service of liberty. It is a five-year term limited endowed chair, meant to support specific projects in the liberal arts and sciences. The person named to this chair has a strong affection for the words on the Dickinson Seal - Freedom is made safe through character and learning- and a strong connection to Neil Weissman. She wrote in her application, “In 1997, as a twenty-six-year-old straight-out-of-graduate-school candidate, I interviewed with Dean Neil Weissman for the first faculty job to be created as a tenure track position in music performance. Until that time, music performance jobs at Dickinson were non-tenure track artist faculty positions. My conversation with Dean Weissman assured me that the college was creating a professorship where public performance counted as scholarship, which for any musician is like hitting the jackpot. To remain curious and useful were the goalposts I set for myself in what has been my one and only professional academic appointment,” curious and useful are indeed words we would use to describe this faculty member – and ambitious in her approach to a five-year term chair appointment, which she will use to explore the spaces of generative friction juxtaposing the racialization of the Irish in the United States and the minstrel shows of African Americans. She describes her project “The Masks We Wear,” as “bold, ambitious, and frightering project” it is a project that the committee felt to an essential one – a project that interrogates our role in the construction and maintenance of freedom itself.

The inaugural Neil B. Weissman Chair in the Liberal Arts is awarded to someone I personally have found to be welcoming, challenging, supportive, kind, and incisive in her intellect – a true model of the liberal arts: Professor of Music Jennifer Blyth.

Dickinson Dean’s Fellowships for Public and Engaged Scholarship

The Office of the Provost and Dean of the college awarded eight new Public Facing Scholar fellowships to deserving faculty members. Full year academic year fellowships went to Andy Bale (Art/Art History) to take ARRIVALS— his long-term documentary and exhibition project focused on refugee, immigrant, and displaced communities—to Boise, Idaho, where the project began in 2019, and Anna Neumann (American Studies), to organize a significant ethnographic film and media festival. We awarded semester-long fellowships to Marcelo Borges (History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies), Robert Pound (Music), and Toby Reiner (Political Science), and summer fellowships to Azriel Grysman (Psychology), Eren Bilen (Data Analytics) and Michele Patterson Ford (Psychology). Borges is completing work on the history of migration and emotions; Pound will produce recorded and live presentations of Iache Salpinx (The Trumpet Cries Out), a musical translation of The Iliad. Reiner will work on two articles for The Conversation: one on the major arguments for open borders or freedom of movement and one on the central principles of justice after war. Grysman is completing a book project on Holocaust memories and aims to bring some of these stories to life through video narratives. Bilen will push work on nationalism in online games and the necessity for critical thinking when using generative AI into outlets such as The Conversation, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. Ford will develop a book project on “letting go of control” for a general audience to share, based on evidence, how flexibility supports emotional health.

More Information

3 Summer’26 Dean’s Fellows who will earn a small stipend or professional development funds ($1,500) for the creation and placement of at least one piece of public scholarship;

3 Semester Long Dean’s Fellows (fall ’26 or spring ’27) who will earn either a small stipend or professional development funds ($1,500) or an unfunded course reassignment, for the creation and placement of at least one piece of public scholarship (this choice should be made in consultation with the department and the dean);

1 Year Long Dean’s Fellow (AY 26/27) who will earn either one funded course-reassignment to be taken in consultation with their department and the dean, or a stipend or professional development fund of $4,500, for the creation and placement of at least two pieces of public scholarship during AY 26/27, and the development of a half-day workshop on public facing scholarship.

A half-day workshop on public facing scholarship, facilitated by the year long dean’s fellow with hospitality and material support provided through my office, in spring ’27, to germinate additional public facing work on campus.

To apply, by January 16, please send a cover letter following to cramerre@dickinson.edu and ritchiem@dickinson.edu with the subject line Faculty Fellowship Application, and including the following:

An indication of the experience you already have in producing public-facing scholarship;

An explanation of your desire to do more public facing work, and a vision for that work in the time period you hope to hold the fellowship;

A clear indication of what length and time frame you hope to hold this fellowship (you can apply for both summer and semester, or summer and academic year in the same application), and the way you intend to access the support (stipend, professional development, or course reassignment);

A statement explaining the value of this work to your discipline, to the College, and to the public;

Links to samples of this work, where possible.

Those applying for the academic year fellowship should also provide a brief paragraph or two prospectus or outline of a vision for a workshop on the topic of public scholarly engagement.

All applicants should also include a cv with their emailed application.

A small committee of provost office staff will consult with FPC in the awarding of these fellowships, using the following criteria:

Potential and promise for placement of important scholarly work in the public realm;

Ability of this work to translate well to the public;

Clarity of purpose;

Diversity of perspectives, disciplines, and ranks represented by the cohort of fellows.

Alternatives to Canceling Class

When life happens, you don’t cancel class, call in a partner. Whether you have advance notice due to a conference presentation or an unexpected personal matter arises, there are colleagues on campus eager to engage with your students in meaningful ways. Campus partners are offering pre-designed workshops on a range of topics. Simply select a workshop and once submitted, the request will be sent to the appropriate facilitator, who will follow up via email to confirm details and coordinate the session.

Alternatives to Canceling Class (ACC) provides flexible, content-rich, and customizable options for faculty in all disciplines and course levels to use when they’re away from class—throughout the academic year in partnership with centers, offices, or initiatives across Dickinson College. Explore the options HERE!

Dish with the Dean

This is an invitation to gather 2 – 5 of your colleagues for concerted and purposeful conversation with me. Maybe you’re a junior faculty member who wants to bring members of your incoming cohort together to talk about what you’ve noticed about the college so far; maybe you’re a department that wants to think out loud with me about ways to reshape your curriculum; maybe you’re a mentoring cohort and you just want to hear another perspective on service and leadership at the college; maybe you’re a staff member in academic affairs who wants to know more about areas of the college you don’t routinely see, and so you find your peers in those areas and invite them along. Or, maybe you want to talk about shared governance, or a common research project, or an idea you have. If this describes you, and you have some colleagues who want to join in, please sign up below on a first-come-first-scheduled basis.

The only requirements are: use this link ( Dish with the Dean.xlsx) to sign up with a complete group of between 3 and 6 people (you + 2 – 5 more), and let me know the topic/question/theme for our time together. I’ll provide the location in advance, refreshments the day of; I’ll welcome the chance to connect.