Laurie L. Patton, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of
Religions at Emory University and director of Emory's Center for Faculty
Development and Excellence, will become the next dean of the faculty of Arts
and Sciences at Duke University beginning in July, Duke President Richard H.
Brodhead and Provost Peter Lange announced Wednesday.
Patton will oversee the university's core academic units,
which offers courses and degrees across the arts, humanities, social sciences
and natural sciences. She was recommended by a search committee of Duke faculty
members, academic leaders and students who cited her collaborative leadership
style, skills as a consensus builder and compelling vision of how universities
can work in partnership with the broader public.
"Laurie Patton is an accomplished scholar who radiates
the love of teaching and learning," Brodhead said. "She is a natural community builder who
values the best of traditional education while having a sharp eye to the
future. She will bring energy, wisdom and vision to this crucial
appointment."
"I am enormously pleased that Laurie Patton has agreed
to become the next dean of Arts and Sciences," said Lange, Duke's senior
academic officer. "She is a most gifted scholar and teacher whose career
has demonstrated a commitment to research and teaching and to how the two can
most productively be combined. She has a breadth of vision about how Arts and
Sciences can continue to sustain and enhance its existing great strengths while
innovating and thereby advancing its highest priorities and those of the
university."
Patton, who received her B.A. from Harvard University in
1983 and her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1991, is the author or
editor of eight books on South Asian history, culture and religion. She
translated the classical Sanskrit text, "The Bhagavad Gita," for the
Penguin Classics Series and has written two books of poetry. Her current
research for two forthcoming books focuses on religion in the public sphere and
on women and Sanskrit in contemporary India.
Patton served as chair of Emory's religion department from
2000-2007, and of Emory College's Tenure and Promotion Committee in 2006. From
2004-2007, she was co-convener of an interdisciplinary initiative on Religions
and the Human Spirit, part of the university's strategic plan. This work
created several research and teaching projects that integrated the study of
religion and the health sciences. As director of Emory's Center for Faculty
Development, she currently oversees a university-wide interdisciplinary seminar
program, programs on pedagogy and a set of initiatives to assist faculty
authors.
Patton has lectured widely on religious pluralism and
religion in the public sphere. She is the founder and co-convener of a
Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding Initiative at Emory, and she recently
consulted with the White House Office of Faith-Based Community Partnerships on
interfaith literacy and the U.S Department of Education's Initiative on Civic
Engagement.
In 2005, she received Emory University's highest award for
teaching, the Emory Williams Award. This
year, she is finishing a term as president of the American Society for the
Study of Religion.
"Everyone who met Laurie was impressed by her intense
involvement in interdisciplinary, translational, global scholarship," said
Lynn Smith-Lovin, a professor of sociology who led the Duke search committee
that recommended Patton to the university's leadership. "They were stirred
by her vision for Arts and Sciences. I was struck by the enthusiasm about her
candidacy across students and faculty from many different disciplines and
academic positions."
"I am delighted to have the opportunity to serve as the
next dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences," said Patton. "As my conversations with members of the
Duke community deepened over the course of the autumn, it became clear to me
that there was a remarkable match between Duke's vision for higher education in
the 21st century and my own. Duke's clear eminence in teaching,
interdisciplinary research, international educational partnerships and new
models for civic engagement make it an extraordinary place to be. I am honored
to join this community of faculty and student leaders."
Her husband, Shalom Goldman, is professor of Middle Eastern
Studies at Emory and the author and editor of several books and numerous
articles on Christian Hebraism, Jewish-Christian relations and contemporary
Israel.
Patton will succeed Alvin L. Crumbliss, a chemistry
professor and former dean of natural sciences who was appointed Arts and
Sciences dean in May 2010 upon the departure of former dean George McLendon to
become the provost of Rice University.