I write to announce that Emily Roxworthy, Associate Dean in The Graduate Division, will become the next Dean of the School of Dramatic Arts at the University of Southern California. I can think of no better person to take on this role, and am confident that she will be successful as a dean.
Under her leadership in The Graduate Division, Associate Dean Roxworthy has undertaken a comprehensive analysis of graduate student mentoring, work which will inform future enhancements to our professional development offerings and the hiring of a new Director of Professional Development. Additionally, her collaboration with me on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion has been an important part of our emerging efforts to enhance outreach, access, recruitment, and retention of students who are underrepresented throughout graduate education.
The impressive work Associate Dean Roxworthy has accomplished in The Graduate Division comes as little surprise, given the impact she has had on UC San Diego over the past 17 years. She has been a long-serving member of the faculty in the Department of Theatre and Dance, and has also served as a faculty affiliate in the Department of Ethnic Studies, the Critical Gender Studies Program, and the new Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies (AAPI) minor. She has taught in Sixth College's Culture, Art, and Technology (CAT) program, and received a Sixth College teaching award. As Provost of Earl Warren College, she led UC San Diego’s undergraduate colleges’ launch of the online orientation program COMPASS; oversaw innovations in Warren’s academic programs, including the creation of scientific writing and South Asian Studies programs; and inaugurated the Academe Awards for Principles of Community (the BEARLS, now in its 5th year). She served as Acting Provost of Thurgood Marshall College, following two years of lecturing for Marshall's renowned DEI course, Dimensions of Culture (DOC), and served as Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Diversity & Equity, and Vice Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. She also served as Chair of the systemwide University Committee on Affirmative Action and Diversity (UCAADE), and as a liaison to the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS). She has been recognized for her contributions in support of UC San Diego's commitment to diversity as a university-wide recipient of a 2015 Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Award. Finally, she was recognized by the Academic Senate with a 2012 Distinguished Teaching Award.
Associate Dean Roxworthy's work as a scholar-artist makes her an ideal choice to lead USC’s School of Dramatic Arts. She is an active and accomplished scholar and teacher, working at the intersection of theatre history and performance studies, with particular interests in interculturalism, Asian/Asian American theatre, digital media, and role playing. Among her many scholarly achievements, her interactive theatre piece, "Ready to Vote," was the centerpiece of the half-day leadership seminar for Department Chairs and Deans across all 10 UC campuses. She was awarded two Digital Humanities Start-Up Awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for her collaborative digital project entitled DRAMA IN THE DELTA, a 3D role-playing video game that reconstructed intercultural performances staged during WWII at the Rohwer and Jerome internment camps that were in the Jim Crow-era Arkansas Delta. She is also the author of two scholarly books and the artistic director of Workplace Interactive Theatre (WIT), a company that performs customized theatre programs for organizations seeking institutional change.
We appreciate the commitment Associate Dean Roxworthy has shown to undergraduate and graduate education, equity, and diversity here at UC San Diego as well as her dedication as an educator, administrator, and member of numerous departmental, college, campus-wide, and system-wide committees. I will miss working with her on a daily basis, but feel indebted to her for all she has accomplished, and for her collegiality. I wish her the very best as a new Dean. I am thankful she and I got to work together, and I am certain she will be very successful in her new role.
Please join me in congratulating Associate Dean Roxworthy.
