SUBJECT:

Appointment of the Dean of Arts and Humanities

It gives us great pleasure to announce that following an extensive national search, Dr. Cristina Della Coletta has been appointed Dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities effective August 15, 2014. As Dean, she will hold the Chancellor's Associates Chair in Italian Literature. It is expected that she will hold a faculty appointment in the Department of Literature.

Dr. Della Coletta is the Associate Dean of Humanities and the Arts and Professor of Italian in the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia. She has been a faculty member at the University of Virginia since 1992, and she has served as director of the Undergraduate Program in Italian and associate chair of the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, in addition to holding a number of other academic leadership roles within the college and university. She holds a Laurea in Lingue e Letterature straniere (French and North American) from the Università di Venezia, Italy, an M.A. in Italian from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in Italian from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Della Coletta's research interests include contemporary Italian literature, particularly historical fiction, film and cultural studies, women studies, and the use of technology in the humanities. She is the author of the books: When Stories Travel; Cross-Cultural Encounters Between Fiction and Film (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), World's Fairs Italian-Style: The Great Expositions in Turin and Their Narratives (University of Toronto Press, 2006), which was awarded the Modern Language Association of America's Fourth Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize in Italian Studies (2007) and Plotting the Past" Metamorphoses of Historical Narrative in Modern Italian Fiction (Purdue University Press, 1996). Dr. Della Coletta has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards and fellowships and for the past decade has volunteered as a senior mentor to junior faculty in two UVA Programs: The Excellence in Diversity Fellowship Program, and the University Teaching Fellows Program.

As Dean of the UC San Diego Division of Arts and Humanities, Dr. Della Coletta will lead a dynamic and highly ranked academic division with over 1,700 undergraduates, 450 graduate students, and faculty spanning six large academic departments - each with a full range of undergraduate and graduate programs and performance facilities. In addition, she will provide oversight to the Center for the Humanities, Mandeville Center, the University Art Gallery and the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination and divisional engagement with affiliated external entities including the La Jolla Playhouse and the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus.

Dr. Della Coletta's breadth of experience as a scholar, mentor, and administrative leader will serve her well in her role as the next Dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities. Please join us congratulating Dr. Della Coletta on her appointment and in welcoming her to UC San Diego.

Pradeep K. Khosla Chancellor Suresh Subramani Executive Vice Chancellor - Academic Affairs