New A&S dean explains recent changes

Katherine Newman, the new Dean of Arts and Sciences this year, has enthusiastically taken on her new position.

The Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences oversees all of the departments and faculty within the Arts and Sciences school, along with making sure the undergraduates are having the best experience possible.  Newman, who is originally from Northern California, attended the University of California at San Diego for her undergraduate degree, where she double majored in anthropology and philosophy.  She then went on to the University of California at Berkeley, where she received her PhD in cultural anthropology.

She stayed on at Berkeley to teach in the law school in the program of Jurisprudence and Social Policy.  From there, Newman moved on to Columbia University, where she taught in the anthropology department for 16 years, becoming a full professor with tenure.

After that, she taught at Harvard University in the Kennedy School of Government, the sociology department, and was the Dean of Social Science in the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies.

Eight years later, Newman moved to Princeton, where she taught for six years in the sociology department and at the Woodrow Wilson School, which is for international and public affairs. Newman has been at Hopkins for two months, and she has already come up with plans for the school year.

Most immediately, she has changed the dean’s office to create divisions for science, humanities, and social science.  There is now a Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and a Dean of Sciences.

She also created a Dean of Undergraduate Education, Steven David, who will work on projects that will be important for students and their undergraduate experiences.

Along with the new deans, Newman is also carefully looking at every department.

“Over the next two academic years, my colleagues in the Krieger School are going to devote a lot of attention to the intellectual future of all of the fields we study, and think hard – in collaboration with distinguished scholars from others universities — about how we might respond to new opportunities within and between departments This is the essence of the strategic planning process,” Newman said.

To help understand the direction each field is going in, there is a “Futures” program that goes on every Thursday, where faculty and students gather to talk about a specific department or program.  Tonight’s program will be about Physics and Astronomy.

Then, on Friday, the faculty from that field meet to just focus on that one field.  Eventually, faculty will have to write an extensive statement on their department and what they envision for the future of the field.

“This is going to lead to 34 documents at the end of the day that will help me and my faculty colleagues think through how the Krieger school itself should be composed going forward.  As we start looking [towards growing] the faculty, where should our new professors come from? In what fields and what areas will be worth building?” Newman said.

While the academic areas of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences are very important to look into, Newman also finds it important for her to get to know her students.

She has been having dinners for undergraduates every week where they come with their professor and other faculty members, who talk about their current research.

“I have been very intent on trying to create or contribute to a more meaningful community experience for undergraduates.  I wanted my home to be open to students.  I’m just a block and a half away from the campus, so I’m walking distance. And that’s made a difference,” Newman said. “It’s given me a chance to get to know the undergraduates, because I’m used to being a classroom teacher and I’m not right now, so my only real opportunity to meet students and hear about what they’re doing and what’s on their mind is in my own home, and I really value that.  So that has been very important to me.”

Newman also would like for students to enjoy their time here, to experiment with what classes they take, and immerse themselves in activities.

“I recognize that the undergraduates are working exceptionally hard and are devoted to excellence in their fields.  As a Dean who cares about providing opportunities for enrichment and engagement in the world beyond the classroom, I would like to give them parallel opportunities to explore and enjoy themselves during this very special time in their lives.  Four years goes by very quickly.  After that, it doesn’t get easier for people to experiment with new interests,” she said.  “All of us who have been through college recognize what a special time it is in your life.  I want our students to remember their years at Hopkins as a time when they had the chance to stretch themselves and put off, for a short time, some of the obligations of adulthood that do indeed present themselves down the road.”

While working on these numerous plans to make sure each department in the Krieger school is the best that it can be, and that students make the most of their experiences at Hopkins, Newman also has two books in the works.  She just went over the page proofs for Taxing the Poor: Doing Damage to the Truly Disadvantaged, which will come out in February.

She wrote it with a graduate student at Princeton, and it’s about how tax policies in effect since the Civil War have negatively affected poor people, especially in the American South. She is currently writing The Accordion Family, which she expects to finish in about six months.  It looks at the increasing time that young people in developed countries spend in the homes they grew up in, and how that will affect the developed countries.

“I am going to try to maintain some shred of my former life as a scholar, but I am very well aware that that’s not easily done, and it will be slower than I’m used to.  That’s okay because the challenge of this job is immense and well worth it,” Newman said.  “I expect to be working very hard.  I would be delighted if I could accomplish 25 percent of the things I started off with, [but] that would probably be a lot.  I expect by the end of the year to have gotten to know a fair amount about each department and the students that are in it.”

Though she has only been at Hopkins for two months, Newman has enjoyed her time here so far.  She is impressed with how the alumni are dedicated to the new generations having the same experiences that they had.  She is also looking forward to working more with the President and the Provost.

“[They] are truly energetic and devoted and 24/7 working on behalf of students and faculty, and [they] are interested in making the institution stronger and stronger.  Nobody’s resting on any laurels. They’re constantly thinking about ways to make it a better place, and I think that’s admirable, because there are actually a lot of laurels here you could sit on.”

Most importantly, Newman has enjoyed the beauty and the architecture of campus along with how hard the students work.

“The Homewood is just majestic.  You know you’re within the university when you see those beautiful brick buildings and the bell towers. And that’s something I really treasure.  Whenever I get out of my office and get to walk around, I’m impressed with how stately it is, and what an environment that provides for the soul,” she said. “I think it’s a fantastic university, I’m very proud to be part of it. It’s always had a distinguished reputation for research, for serious-minded undergraduate students for exceptional scholarly distinction in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.”