Appointment of Professor Carol Genetti as Acting Dean of Graduate Division

February 29, 2012

TO THE CAMPUS COMMUNITY

Dear Colleagues:

In my campus memo of February 24, I shared with you the news that after more than seven years of exceptional leadership of our Graduate Division, Dean Gale Morrison has decided to retire.

Following consultation with our Executive Vice Chancellor, Academic Senate Chair, Deans, and other administrative and faculty colleagues, I am pleased to announce that Professor Carol Genetti has graciously agreed to serve as Acting Dean of our Graduate Division, effective June 30, 2012.

Professor Genetti joined our campus community as a member of our Linguistics faculty in 1990. Her distinguished record of campus service over the past two decades includes chairing our Department of Linguistics from 1999 to 2005, serving as a graduate advisor for Linguistics, and participating in numerous campus committees, including our National Research Council Advisory Committee and Graduate Outreach Advisory Committee. For the past seven years she has served as Associate Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts in our College of Letters and Science. In these and other roles, she has consistently demonstrated her deep commitment to the mission of our university, including graduate education, diversity, and outreach.

Professor Genetti's primary research focuses on the analysis, historical development, and theoretical characterization of languages of the Himalayan region. Her 2007 monograph, A Grammar of Dolakha Newar, was awarded the inaugural von der Gabelentz award in 2009 from the Association for Linguistic Typology, and she is the co-founder and editor of the online journal Himalayan Linguistics. Through her work on endangered Himalayan languages, she has become involved in broader issues and activities related to the documentation and conservation of the world's linguistic diversity, with recent research focused on models of language documentation and conservation, training programs, and fieldwork ethics. In 2007-2008, she served as Director of the Institute on Field Linguistics and Language Documentation. Her work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and she has received distinguished fellowships from the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology and James Cook University in Australia.

I look forward to making an announcement in the near future regarding the formation of our search advisory committee for the next Dean of the Graduate Division. In the interim, please join me in thanking Professor Genetti for her willingness to take on the role of Acting Dean. Her leadership and experience will serve our campus well during this important transition.

Sincerely,

Henry T. Yang
Chancellor