A search committee looking for a director for the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding has narrowed down its list of candidates to six and hopes to announce the new director by the end of the term.
Former director of the Dickey Foundation, History Professor Martin Sherwin, left the College in August, 1995, to work as a history professor at Tufts University. Since Sherwin's departure, Government Professor Gene Lyons has served as acting director.
Government Professor Michael Mastanduno heads the committee, which is composed of Associate Dean of the Humanities Mary Jean Green, Russian Professor Lenore Grenoble, Economics Professor Michael Knetter, Sociology Professor Misagh Parsa and Linda Fowler, head of the Rockefeller Center.
Mastanduno said the six finalists are Gary Gossen, an anthropologist at University of Albany, John Hall, a sociologist at McGill University in Montreal, Douglas Irwin, an economist at the University of Chicago, David Morgan, a historian from the University of London, Craig Murphy, a political scientist from Wellesley College and Samuel Valenzuela, a sociologist from Notre Dame University.
Knetter said there were initially around 120 applicants for the position and said the large number of prospective candidates has lengthened the search process.
The six finalists for the position have been invited to the College for interviews.
Four of the candidates have already completed their on-campus interviews, but the committee is still waiting to interview the other two, Knetter said.
Mastanduno said the committee is looking for many different qualities in the applicants.
There are "a lot of constituencies that need to be filled by the position," Mastanduno said.
The position requires someone who is receptive to student needs, willing to help with organizing conferences and arranging for guest speakers to visit the College and interested in promoting faculty research projects in the area of international studies, he said.
Also, Mastanduno said, the position requires someone who will "project a positive image of the College" to the rest of the academic and international community.
The committee hopes to have the position filled for the 1997-1998 academic year, Mastanduno said.
Lyons said he is looking forward to the appointment of a new Dickey Center head, so he can "go back to some real research."
The committee has interviewed "some excellent people thus far, in a variety of fields," he said.
The Dickey Center also sponsors events and conferences in the international relations field, such as the conference held in September entitled "Law, the Courts and Society: Russia and America," which compared Russian and American legal systems.
