July2, 2007
DiPiero aims to bring humanities to forefront in new
post
Thomas DiPiero, professor of French and of visual and
cultural studies, has been appointed to the newly established post of
senior associate dean of humanities in the College. It’s a role that
he says will let him cross boundaries and encourage more interdisciplinary
ventures.
Thomas DiPiero, professor of French and of visual and
cultural studies, is a self-described gadabout when it comes to diving
across traditional academic boundaries. His new role as senior associate
dean of humanities in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering will
give him the leverage to draw people together for more interdisciplinary
ventures.
“The creation of this position shows how much
this administration wants to bring the humanities to the forefront. We want
to showcase the kind of strengths we have in the humanities and to make
them even stronger,” says DiPiero.
The University may be known more widely for its
science departments and programs, he recognizes, but the humanities are
robust and consistently an attraction for science and humanities majors
alike. Many faculty in the humanities are nationally recognized experts in
their fields, he notes, and they publish widely in some of the most
influential venues in academia.
DiPiero says the flexibility of the Rochester
Curriculum and its course clusters give students “so many options,
and because of that it promotes greater study of the humanities and leads
to a more well-rounded student.”
DiPiero has been part of several collaborative groups
on campus recently and knows that a high percentage of incoming students
gravitate toward music and performing arts—no matter what their
major.
DiPiero will interact with departments in the College
and with other units on supporting scholarship and programs within and
outside the humanities.
“The humanities are an untapped resource here
and I get to tap them,” says DiPiero, a member of the College faculty
since 1987.
The six College humanities departments—art and
art history, English, modern languages and cultures, music, philosophy,
religion and classics—and the two humanistic social
sciences—anthropology and history—are thrilled by the
continuation of the Humanities Fund and the encouragement it represents,
says DiPiero. The fund was created by President Seligman to support
interdisciplinary work by Rochester faculty in philosophy, the arts,
languages, and other fields.
“The kind of programs in this first year allowed
us to think in a pan-humanistic spirit from the traditional to the
cutting-edge. It made crossing boundaries possible,” he says.
A scholar of French literature and French cultural
studies, DiPiero will teach one course each semester. He is the
recipient of the College’s 2004 Goergen Award for Distinguished
Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Teaching, and was chair of the
Department of Modern Languages and Cultures from 1998 to 2004.
As an author, he wrote White Men Aren’t and Dangerous Truths and Criminal Passions: The Evolution
of the French Novel 1569-1791, and was coeditor
of Illicit Sex: Identity Politics in Early
Modern Europe. He earned his bachelor of arts
degree from Ohio State University, master’s degrees from Ohio State
and Cornell universities, and his doctorate in Romance Studies from
Cornell.
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