Brandeis Magazine

Sheryl Sousa ’90, the university’s director of athletics for 11 years, has been promoted to senior associate vice president for student affairs. In 2013, Sousa became assistant vice president for health and wellness, and the following year was named associate vice president. In that role, she oversaw the Brandeis Health Center, the Psychological Counseling Center and the Office of Prevention Services, in addition to serving as athletics director. Her latest promotion adds oversight of these offices: Community Service, the Dean of Students, the Intercultural Center, the Interfaith Chaplaincy, Orientation, Student Activities, and Student Rights and Community Standards. Lynne Dempsey ’93, senior associate athletic director, has been named acting athletic director.

In October, Brandeis celebrated the work, words and vision of Joyce Antler ’63, the Samuel B. Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture, and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, and a nationally renowned women’s historian who will retire at the end of the academic year. “Re:Joyce: Women Changing the World” attracted such speakers as Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Megan Marshall; Judy Norsigian, of the Our Bodies, Ourselves collective; and Nancy Gertner, a former U.S. federal judge.

This fall, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, committed to producing balanced, dispassionate scholarship on all aspects of the contemporary Middle East, marked its 10th anniversary with a panel discussion titled “The Untold Stories of the Middle East,” moderated by Eva Bellin, the Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics. Since its founding, the Crown Center has published 94 briefs and six books, hosted 29 junior fellows and produced seven doctoral recipients.

In September, men’s soccer coach Michael Coven became the sixth coach in Division III history and 11th NCAA coach overall to earn 500 career wins. Coven, who reached this milestone in his 43rd season with the Judges, is the NCAA’s second-longest active tenured coach.

Dig this: Faculty members Andrew Koh (classical studies) and Travis Parno (anthropology) are leading Brandeis students on an archaeological dig in Concord, Mass., at McGrath Farm, part of the former Col. James Barrett Farm. The 10-acre site served as an arsenal during the Revolutionary War. Oral histories indicate that, in later centuries, freed slaves and German prisoners from World War II lived or worked at the farm. The Brandeis excavators believe they may also find Native American fire pits and stone tools, shedding light on an even earlier history.

Derek Carlson ’91 has been named the Judges’ new head coach for baseball, succeeding Pete Varney, who retired this spring after a 34-year career that included more than 700 wins. Carlson comes to Brandeis from Roger Williams, where he had been head coach since 2003. As a Brandeis student-athlete, he played catcher, starting for four years and serving as team captain his senior year.