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April 5, 2024
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Adrian Randolph, associate dean of the Faculty for the Arts and Humanities at Dartmouth College, has been appointed dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (WCAS) at Northwestern University, effective July 1. Mark Ratner will continue to serve as WCAS interim dean through June 30.
Randolph, the Leon E. Williams Professor of Art History at Dartmouth, is widely respected for his intellectual curiosity and commitment to excellence in faculty recruitment, hiring and retention. An art historian and prolific scholar, he will bring an impressive portfolio of building cross-campus and interdisciplinary initiatives to Northwestern.
“I am very pleased that Adrian Randolph will be the next dean of Weinberg College,” Northwestern Provost Daniel Linzer said. “His scholarship, energy and vision for liberal arts and sciences will help continue building Weinberg’s central role in the intellectual vitality of the University.”
A teacher-scholar, Randolph specializes in medieval and Renaissance Italy. His scholarship places a special emphasis on blending visual analysis with other contextual information -- and from fields as varied as science, literature, social history and gender studies. In his work, he has successfully forged connections across disciplinary boundaries to build programming, lectures and conferences on topics as diverse as humor and race, Native American art and science and visualization.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to come to Weinberg at a time when there is so much excitement and opportunity,” Randolph said. “I look forward to working with the faculty, students, staff and alumni of the college.”
Northwestern offers a strong liberal arts education within a vibrant research environment -- “the lifeblood of a great, flexible and dynamic undergraduate education,” Randolph said, noting the University’s strong commitment to undergraduate learning and research.
The Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, he said, is excellently placed to offer undergraduate and graduate students the type of education that theorists identify as most effective, within an environment that values transformative research. He is committed to maintaining premier academic experiences for undergraduates while supporting faculty research at the highest levels.
Having lived previously in the U.K., France, Italy and Germany, Randolph is a strong advocate of using academic research to create solutions to global challenges and fostering a knowledge of global issues in students.
Randolph believes a liberal education is not a luxury but a wise investment that provides the flexibility to explore fresh areas of intellectual inquiry, while crossing boundaries between traditional and new types of learning.
“Institutions like WCAS produce thinkers and practitioners whose creative minds, working within and between disciplines, have been honed by the challenges of the liberal arts,” he said.
Randolph has authored, co-authored or edited eight books and numerous articles, essays and reviews. He also has served on the international advisory board of the journal Art History as well as the University Press of New England. Randolph completed his B.A. at Princeton University, his M.A. at the University of London and his Ph.D. in fine arts and the history of art and architecture at Harvard University.
“I am attracted to Northwestern’s clear mission, its palpable and confident sense of institutional identity, and also its exceptional relations among the colleges and schools comprising the University,” he said.
