UC Santa Cruz names Tyler Stovall new dean of Humanities

UC Santa Cruz has appointed Tyler Stovall to serve as dean of the Humanities Division, effective Spring Quarter.

Stovall comes to the campus from UC Berkeley, where he was a professor of French history and dean of the Undergraduate Division of the College of Letters and Science.

Prior to that, Stovall spent 13 years as a faculty member in the UC Santa Cruz Humanities Division. During his last three years at Santa Cruz, he also served as chair of the History Department and provost of Stevenson College.

"The humanities are central to intellectual life in the 21st century,” said Stovall. “I am thrilled to come to UC Santa Cruz, a university known locally and globally for its pioneering contributions to humanistic education and research."

Originally from Columbus Ohio, Stovall earned his B.A. in history from Harvard University and an M.A in European history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he went on to receive a Ph.D. in Modern European/French History with a minor in Latin American Studies.

He has also taught at Ohio State University and was a visiting professor at the Université de Polynésie Française in Tahiti.

Stovall is the author of several books and numerous articles in the field of modern French history, specializing in transnational history, labor, colonialism, and race.

His most recent books include Black France ⁄ France Noire: The History and Politics of Blackness, and Paris and the Spirit of 1919: Consumer Struggles, Transnationalism, and Revolution—both published in 2012. Stovall is also working on a new book titled Universal Nation: A Transnational History of Modern France.

Stovall will succeed William A Ladusaw, who has served as dean of humanities since September of 2010.