ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan Professor of History Terrence J. McDonald has been named to serve as interim dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LS&A). The appointment, which was announced today (April 29) by Interim Provost Paul Courant, will be effective July 1 pending approval by the U-M Board of Regents.

  McDonald

McDonald succeeds Dean Shirley C. Neuman, who is leaving to become provost of the University of Toronto.

“Terry McDonald has made outstanding contributions to the College through his scholarship, teaching and service,” Courant said. “I am extremely grateful to him for taking on this important assignment, and I have every confidence that he will serve the University and the College very well.”

In a letter to LS&A department chairs, Courant noted that McDonald “is an award-winning historian of the United States, the recipient of almost every teaching award the University offers, and a seasoned administrator.”

McDonald is the author or editor of four books and of numerous articles, focusing on American urban political history and historical method. He has received prizes for his work from the Social Science History Association and the California Historical Society, has been a Guggenheim Fellow and received other fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U-M Institute for the Humanities. In 1991 he was the Richard Hudson Research Professor in the Department of History and in 2001 he was a Directeur d’Etudes at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

The recipient of numerous teaching awards, McDonald was appointed an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in 1993-96. He has worked with scores of graduate students and three of his dissertation advisees have won a Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award in the past five years.

He has served the University in many capacities including as a member of the Senate Assembly, a member of the executive committee of the Humanities Institute, and as interim chair of the Department of History. From 1995 to 2000 he was associate dean for academic affairs in LS&A. In that role he managed all aspects of academic personnel activities in the College, including new faculty hiring and orientation, the tenure and promotion process, affirmative action, leaves and sabbaticals and the formulation of all College policy in these areas. At the end of his term he received the Harold Johnson Diversity Service Award for his efforts in encouraging diversity in faculty hiring and promotion.

McDonald joined the University in 1980 after receiving his doctorate from Stanford University. He was promoted to professor in 1992. In recent years he has also maintained an active public life, serving on the Ypsilanti, Mich., City Council from 1994 to 2000.

Courant said there will be a search advisory committee to assist with the selection of a permanent dean. It is expected that the committee will be appointed by the end of May.

Contact: Julie Peterson

HistorySocial Science History AssociationSenate AssemblyJulie Peterson