Associate Dean Appointments

Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill announces new Associate Deans Alene Moyer and Sheri Parks.

Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill announces new Associate Deans Alene Moyer and Sheri Parks.

To: Colleagues

From: Bonnie Thornton Dill, Dean

Date: July 19, 2012

Re: Associate Dean Appointments

Dear Colleagues:

I'm pleased to announce the appointments of Alene Moyer and Sheri Parks to Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Humanities.

Alene Moyer, Associate Professor of Germanic Studies, will serve as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

She succeeds former Associate Dean Elizabeth Loizeaux and will oversee undergraduate and graduate curriculum and programs; graduate student recruitment, fellowships and student advisory board; ARHU’s five living-learning programs and the Learning Outcomes Assessment (LOA) process. Working closely with faculty and administrators, Alene will develop, assess, revise and deliver curricula for the University’s General Education Program and the College’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Alene’s position is effective July 23, 2012.

Since arriving at the University of Maryland in 1999, Alene has served as Language Program Director and Undergraduate Director for Germanic Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. She has also served on college and university committees, including the Collegiate Council, Graduate Fellowships and Awards Committee, the Programs, Courses, and Curricula (PCC) Committee, the LOA Committee, Campus Senate and the University Fulbright Committee.

A scholar of Second Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics, Alene’s research focuses on adult language learners and long-term learning outcomes in both classroom-focused and naturalistic language acquisition. She is author of "Foreign Accent: The Phenomenon of Non-native Speech" (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming); "Age, Accent and Experience in Second Language" (Multilingual Matters, Ltd., 2004); and co-editor of "Social Influences in L2 Pronunciation" (DeGruyter Mouton, forthcoming). She has published numerous book chapters and journal articles on second language phonology and the intersections of cognitive and social factors in language acquisition.

Alene earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Applied and Germanic Linguistics, and her B.S. in Journalism, all from the University of Texas at Austin.

Based on the recommendation of a faculty committee, I’ve also added an Associate Dean for Research, Interdisciplinary Scholarship and Programming to support the advancement and promotion of research and scholarship in the arts and humanities. Sheri Parks, Associate Professor of American Studies, has been appointed to this position and will oversee college-wide funding initiatives and faculty grant development related to their research and scholarship, the Humanities Forum, the Dean’s Lecture Series and WORLDWISE programming. Working closely with faculty, administrators, development, communications, and external partners, Sheri will work to develop a vision and plan to illuminate the work of the arts and humanities, particularly scholarship of diverse, interdisciplinary and collaborative nature. Sheri began July 16, 2012.

Sheri arrived on campus in 1985, serving as Assistant Professor of Radio, Television, and Film. In 1992 she joined the department of American Studies and later, from 1995-1999, was appointed Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies where she facilitated the development of the Undergraduate Research Day, the First Year Book and living-learning communities. Most recently, Sheri has served on numerous college and university committees, including the Humanities Institute Task Force, the Digital Humanities, Media and Cultures cluster hire search, the ARHU Dean’s Lecture Series committee, the Academic Planning Advisory Committee (APAC) and the faculty advisory board of the Future of Information Alliance.

A public intellectual, Sheri’s research focuses on the intersections of public aesthetics and mythology, family, culture and gender. She is the author of Fierce Angels: The Strong Black Woman in American Life and Culture (Ballantine/Random House, 2010). One of her book chapters, “In my mother’s house: Black feminist aesthetics, television and ‘A Raisin in the Sun,’” originally published in Theatre and Feminist Aesthetics, edited by Karen Laughlin and Women’s Studies professor Catherine Schuler, was reprinted in Black Feminist Cultural Criticism, a collection of key works. She carries the argument for the arts and humanities to the general public, with speeches, interviews with local, national and international media and with 15 years as NPR host, co-host and cultural correspondent. Currently, she is cultural critic for WYPR-NPR in Baltimore. She has worked in collaboration with cultural institutions such as The Walters, Wooly Mammoth Theater and Center Stage as well as the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (CSPAC). In addition to serving as Associate Professor in American Studies, she is also affiliate faculty in the departments of African American Studies and Women’s Studies.

Sheri earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Communication Studies from the University of Massachusetts, and her B.A. in English and Radio, Television and Motion Picture from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

I welcome these new administrators to the Dean’s Office and invite you to offer them congratulations on their appointment.

I would like to give a special thanks to Seung-Kyung Kim, Chair and Professor in Women’s Studies, for her leadership in chairing the search committee that led to these two appointments. Also serving on the committee were: Paul Brohan, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center; Audran Downing, ARHU Dean’s Office; Susan Dwyer, Philosophy; Valerie Orlando, School of Language, Literatures, and Cultures; Shawn Parry-Giles, Communication; William (Chip) Richardson, Art; David Sicilia, History.