Troy, N.Y. — John P. Harrington has been named dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Harrington has served 10 years as the dean of humanities and social sciences and is a full professor of humanities at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art — an exceptionally competitive college in New York City that provides full-tuition scholarship for each of its 900 undergraduates. He will begin his tenure at Rensselaer in August.

As Rensselaer’s dean, Harrington will oversee a school that serves as a center for several internationally known programs and scholars, with a mission of blending technological expertise with humanistic values, innovative artistic endeavors, and cutting-edge social scientific discoveries. The dean works with the department chairs in planning, leadership, and administration of the school. The dean reports to the provost and sits on the Deans Council with the deans of Rensselaer’s other four schools.

“Dr. Harrington brings a full complement of academic experiences as an administrator, a researcher, and a faculty member,” said President Shirley Ann Jackson. “His vast experience at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art will be wholly utilized at Rensselaer, and he will play a major role in identifying and nurturing opportunities that build on the school’s core strengths.

Rensselaer’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences is comprised of five departments: Arts; Cognitive Science; Economics; Language, Literature, and Communication; and Science and Technology Studies.

”I am extremely pleased that we were able to attract someone of Professor Harrington’s caliber to be the new dean of humanities and social sciences,“ said G. Bud Peterson, Rensselaer provost. ”His extensive administrative experience, coupled with his outstanding record of scholarship, provides an excellent basis upon which to continue to build and strengthen this vital part of our academic programs.

“The School of Humanities and Social Sciences has unique and highly interdisciplinary degree programs and an extraordinary faculty,” said Harrington. “These strengths position the school to be a vibrant intellectual contributor and artistic collaborator on the world stage.”

At Cooper Union, the faculty of humanities and social sciences provides liberal arts requirements for the baccalaureate degrees of the separate schools of Architecture, Art, and Engineering. As dean, Harrington has a unique, institution-wide role in planning and implementation. In 1999, Harrington was the sole dean on a Presidential Search Committee, and from 1996 to 1998 he served as chair of the steering committee of an institution-wide self-study in conjunction with Cooper Union’s reaccreditations by the Middle States Association. During Harrington’s tenure, the dean of humanities has taken on additional responsibilities as chair of the President’s Academic Council, as director of the Cooper Union library and library technology, and director of the Humanities Gallery, a public exhibition space.

Harrington established the first endowed chair in humanities at Cooper Union — the Feltman Chair; he created the foundation to the Dale Harris Fund to underwrite student contact with the arts; with support from NEH, FIPSE, and NSF, he created “The Cooper Union Seminars in Science and Art”; and also an invitational residency of many prominent writers and visiting distinguished professors.

Harrington was educated at Columbia University and University College, Dublin, and he earned his Ph.D. in literature from Rutgers University. He has written extensively on Irish literature and culture, including the books The English Traveller in Ireland (1990); The Irish Beckett (1991); and The Irish Play on the New York Stage (1997). He edited W.W. Norton’s anthology Modern Irish Drama (1991) and, most recently, co-edited with the sociologist Elizabeth Mitchell a collection of interdisciplinary essays published as Politics and Performance in Contemporary Northern Ireland (1999). While continuing to teach and attend academic conferences, he frequently lectures on theater and Irish culture in non-academic settings such as Center Stage Theater (Baltimore), Lincoln Center Festival, Primary Stages (New York), New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore), and others.

In addition to a number of academic and Irish cultural organizations, Harrington is a member of the American Association for Higher Education, the American Conference of Academic Deans, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the American Library Association, and the College Board.

Contact: Megan Galbraith
Phone: (518) 276-6531
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