Franklin associate deans to release new album

Jackson Street - an instant classic.

Okay so maybe the album isn't quite finished yet, and it will of course feature the fifth associate dean, Dr. Hugh Ruppersburg.

From left to right above, Dr. Russell Malmberg, Dr. Noel Fallows, Dr. Kecia Thomas, and Dr. Charles Kutal.

Dr. Malmberg is a member of the plant biology department and has an adjunct appointment in the genetics department. As associate dean of the Franklin College, Russell Malmberg oversees research and graduate education activities in Franklin College, serves as the primary liaison with the division of biological sciences departments, which includes biochemistry and molecular biology, cellular biology, genetics, marine sciences, microbiology and plant biology.

Dr. Fallows is Distinguished Research Professor of Spanish in the department of Romance Languages and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. As associate dean of international and multidisciplinary programs in Franklin College, he served as the College liaison with all Franklin study abroad programs as well as the African Studies Institute, the African-American Studies Program, the Alternative Media Access Center, the Center for Integrative Conservation Research, the Criminal Justice Program, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute, the Linguistics Program, and the Women's Studies Institute. He is also the primary liaison for language and social sciences departments — anthropology, classics, comparative literature, geography, Germanic & Slavic studies, ssychology, Romance languages, sociology, and communication studies. We use the past tense above to note that Dr. Fallows has moved to the Office of International Education to serve as interim associate provost for international education. He is also the author of an amazing book on Jousting.

A.G. Steer professor in the department of Germanic and Slavic Studies Dr. Martin Kagel is now serving as interim associate dean with Dr. Fallows' portfolio.

Dr. Thomas is a professor in the department of psychology and the Institute for African American Studies. In her role as senior advisor to the dean, Thomas engages in research and practice in order to support those priorities throughout the college.  As senior advisor for inclusion and diversity leadership, Thomas chairs the Franklin College’s task force on inclusion and diversity; facilitates the college’s graduate committee on inclusion and diversity; serves as a liaison to other UGA units/colleges as it relates to cross-institution programs and initiatives; develops initiatives, programs, and systems to promote a climate for diversity and inclusion in the college; provides leadership and support to the Dean’s cabinet, departments, institutes, and centers related to diversity trends in higher education and best practices; engages in a regular diversity climate assessment and report annually on the demographics of the college; identifies and supports Franklin units’ development of diversity-related grant proposals; and identifies and supports professional and career development opportunities for underrepresented faculty and graduate students in the college.

Dr. Kutal is a professor in the department of chemistry. As associate dean, his duties include overseeing the supplemental instructional budget of the College, which funds graduate teaching and laboratory assistants and non-tenure track faculty involved in instruction. He serves as the primary liaison between the Dean's Office and the departments in the mathematical (Computer Science, Mathematics, and Statistics) and physical (Chemistry, Geology, and Physics) sciences; in this role he interviews prospective faculty members and handles requests for leaves and graduate faculty status. His other duties include prioritizing and scheduling renovations of physical facilities, monitoring space utilization, handling faculty requests for study in a second discipline, and coordinates the undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies Program. Dr. Kutal also coordinates the undergraduate instructional program of the College at the Gwinnett and Griffin campuses.

Our fifth Beatle associate dean is Dr. Hugh Ruppersburg who exemplifies the Franklin College in every way. As senior associate dean of arts and sciences, Ruppersburg serves as a liaison with departments in the humanities, the arts, and the human sciences. These include the Lamar Dodd School of Art, dance, theatre and film studies, English, history, the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, philosophy, and religion.  He is the College liaison with the faculty senate and sits on the senate curriculum committee and in this role receives and processes course and program proposals from the various units in the College. Other responsibilities include promotion and tenure, leaves of absence, special professorships and awards, state-of-the-art conference proposals, program reviews, and assessment. He works closely with the Executive Director of Information Technology, in overseeing the equipment budget. He is also a University Professor of English and a teacher and scholar of American literature and culture, especially of the American South. His publications include three books on major writers (two on William Faulkner and one on Robert Penn Warren), articles about modern literature, film, and popular culture, five edited literary anthologies of Georgia writing, and a co-edited collection of essays on the novelist Don DeLillo.  He serves as editor of the literature section of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.  His awards include the University Professorship (2013), Albert Christ-Janer Award for Creative Research (2009), the Governor’s Award in the Humanities (2007), Georgia Author of the Year (2004), Sandy Beaver Teaching Award (1989), and Outstanding Honors Professor Award (1983, 1987).   He joined the UGA faculty in 1977 and has served as head of the English department (1992-95), interim head of comparative literature (1995-97), and interim dean of the Franklin College (2011-12). He has also served as interim vice provost for UGA.

Dr. Ruppersburg is retiring this summer and we will miss him very much. We are grateful for the leadership of our amazing associate deans, who all continue their work in the lab and the classroom alongside their duties for the College as a whole. Like one of our former dean's told me once, we always get the best people. These scholar/administrators are the best of the best.