Announcing Conveners to Discuss our Future
Jan. 31, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
I want to thank you all for making nominations for faculty to serve as conveners for our conversations about Brandeis’s future academic organization. You made over 100 different nominations; many colleagues were nominated multiple times.
I chose three of your nominees for each of the four units - Arts, Humanities and Culture; Science, Engineering, and Technology; Economics and Business; and Social Sciences and Social Policy. All are tenured professors. Two come from within the unit and one from outside. When I called nominees and they asked administrative questions, I realized that a member of each convener group needed to have administrative knowledge to answer such questions. So one of the three in each convener group has that knowledge as well.
I am very grateful to the following faculty members who volunteered their valuable time to serve as conveners.
Arts, Humanities, Culture
Olivier Bernardi, Harleen Singh and Joe Wardwell
Social Sciences and Social Policy
Monika Mitra, Charles Golden and Aldo Musacchio
Science, Engineering, Technology
Sacha Nelson, Carol Fierke and Sara Shostak
Economics and Business
Sarah Mayorga, Linda Bui and Ben Shiller
The role of the conveners is to conduct meetings with their colleagues to listen, raise questions, answer questions, foster connections, and encourage faculty to think outside the box about their futures, their program/departments future, and the university’s future.
The conveners will share what they have learned with the President, Provost and Faculty as the proposed plan is shaped over the coming weeks and months. Given that there are things that I need to do and you want me to do, I asked Joel Christensen to work with me. In this role, he will be responsible for the conveners and collaborating with faculty and staff on re-imagining and implementing our vision for a vibrant future.
I’d be grateful if you would attend one or more of the convenings. Your thinking is essential to fine tuning the plan to be presented to the faculty in February and March. We will be publicizing the schedule of convenings and town halls over the next few weeks. If you have any comments or suggestions, please email Joel or me.
Have a great weekend.
Best,
Arthur