Duke Kunshan names new division chairs for undergraduate program

Dr. Scott MacEachern, Dr. James Miller, and Dr. William Winner have been respectively named division chair of social sciences, arts and humanities, and natural and applied sciences of the undergraduate program at Duke Kunshan University. They assume their roles on December 1, 2018.

KUNSHAN, CHINA —Dr. Scott MacEachern, Dr. James Miller, and Dr. William Winner have been respectively named division chair of social sciences, arts and humanities, and natural and applied sciences of the undergraduate program at Duke Kunshan University for an initial appointment of two years, Haiyan Gao, vice chancellor for academic affairs, announced today.

Dr. MacEachern, Dr. Miller, and Dr. Winner joined Duke Kunshan as the university’s founding faculty for its four-year undergraduate degree program launched this August, and will take up their roles as division chairs on December 1, 2018.

As the division chairs, they will report to Gao in matters that pertain to faculty affairs, including but not limited to recruiting, hiring, performance reviews and mentoring. They will also work closely with Marcia France, dean of undergraduate studies, on matters concerning the management and development of the undergraduate program, and with Noah Pickus, dean of undergraduate curricular affairs and faculty development, for matters concerning the curriculum and faculty recruitment.

‘I am most delighted that these three senior colleagues agreed to serve in this important role of our undergraduate degree program. Together they brought to Duke Kunshan rich experiences of building various education and research programs, and university administrative leadership skills – all are crucially important to Duke Kunshan at its most formative time,’ said Gao.

Dr. Scott MacEachern, professor of archeology and anthropology at Duke Kunshan, was until 2018 professor of anthropology at Bowdoin College, where he also served as chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He has won teaching awards and was elected chair of the faculty governance and of the promotions and tenure committees at Bowdoin.

Dr. Miller, professor of humanities and co-director of the Humanities Research Center at Duke Kunshan, was director of the School of Religion at Queen’s University, Canada, prior to joining Duke Kunshan. He is noted worldwide as an expert in Daoism, China’s indigenous religion. He has published six books including, most recently,
China’s Green Religion: Daoism and the Quest for a Sustainable Future (Columbia 2017).

Dr. Winner, professor of environmental science at Duke Kunshan, has led the development of and directed environmental science research centers and academic programs at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Oregon State University, and North Carolina State University before joining Duke Kunshan. He also worked in research administration at the National Science Foundation.

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Gareth McPherson

Email: gareth.mcpherson@dukekunshan.edu.cn

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