Jeffrey Cole named dean of the faculty

Jeffrey Cole, associate dean of the faculty and professor of anthropology, has been named dean of the faculty at Connecticut College, effective July 1. The highest ranking officer after the president, the dean of the faculty is responsible for providing academic leadership for the College and its faculty.

The announcement is the culmination of a comprehensive search process, overseen by the Dean of the Faculty Search Committee, which included input from faculty and staff.

“I am grateful to the members of the search committee whose deeply respectful listening and thoughtful engagement made this a very meaningful and rewarding process,” said President Katherine Bergeron in an announcement to the campus community. “With his administrative talent and institutional experience, I know Dean Cole will be a wonderful addition to the College’s senior leadership team.”

As dean of the faculty, Cole will provide leadership for the College’s educational mission, support faculty development and ensure the quality of the College curriculum. The dean is responsible for overseeing all academic departments and programs; stewarding the appointment, promotion and tenure of individual faculty members; identifying new chairs and program directors; reviewing the faculty compensation program; and administering the academic budget.

Cole has served as associate dean since 2015. During that time, he has collaborated on the implementation of Connections, the College’s bold new curriculum; coordinated faculty professional development programs; and supported the College’s involvement in C3, a consortium that promotes diversity in higher education and of which Connecticut College is a founding partner. He has also continued supervising individual studies and honors theses for students in the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment and in the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts.

Cole joined Connecticut College in 2008 as chair of the Department of Anthropology after serving for nearly 15 years on the faculty of Dowling College. At Connecticut College, he has offered popular courses on food, drink and migration, and led students on ethnographic trips through Long Island and New York City. As chair, he worked with his department to re-structure the curriculum, transform the student experience, and hire and mentor new faculty.

He received his first bachelor’s degree from Portland State University, another undergraduate degree from the University of Oslo, and a doctorate from the City University of New York. His scholarship has focused on food and agriculture, migration, ethnicity and race. He is the author of “A New Racism in Europe: A Sicilian Ethnography” and is co-author with Sally Booth of “Dirty Work: Immigrants in Domestic Service, Agriculture, and Prostitution in Sicily.” He co-edited with Pietro Saitta two special issues of the Journal of Modern Italian Studies and is the editor of a one-volume encyclopedia on identity, “Ethnic Groups of Europe.”

He is the recipient of grants and awards from the National Science Foundation, Wenner-Gren, the Fulbright program, and the H.F. Guggenheim Foundation. He served as president (2012-14) of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, a section of the American Anthropological Association.

Cole is a resident of Mystic, Connecticut, where he lives with his spouse Sally Booth.