FAS Creates International Affairs Deanship

Margot Gill, currently the administrative dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, will become the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ first administrative dean for international affairs starting on July 1.

FAS Dean Michael D. Smith wrote in an email to FAS faculty and staff Tuesday that, in her new role, Gill will act as FAS’s liaison with foreign governments, international corporations, foundations, and NGOs to implement FAS initiatives. Although Gill said she is not yet sure which specific initiatives she and FAS faculty will pursue, she said she will be in constant communication with FAS faculty and the leadership of Harvard’s international centers.

“First and foremost I need to align with our faculty interests,” Gill said in an interview Wednesday, adding that Smith asked her to consider taking the position early in May.

Last semester, a group of Harvard’s international center directors crafted a white paper about Harvard’s global strategy and recommended the creation of an FAS-specific position to liaise between the school, the centers, and international groups, according Brian D. Farrell, director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

“It’s important that there be a uniform voice and also a single individual at the head with respect to our connections with international supporters and international institutions around the world,” said Ferrell, who is also a Biology professor. “FAS being such a large portion of our activities, it made sense for this to be an FAS appointment.”

Ferrell, along with Gill and Smith, emphasized that Harvard is expanding its international presence.

“Harvard is taking some bold steps forward in terms of international engagement,” he said, adding that this new position is “needed” in order for Harvard’s centers, the FAS, and international interests groups to effectively communicate.

Gill, for her part, said Smith has emphasized that Harvard has “expanding interests in Asia,” and that “there is a good deal of interest in sub-Saharan Africa.”

“Indeed, few people on campus are as familiar with the range of the FAS international engagement as Dean Gill, and I can think of no better person to assume the task of guiding the future development of that engagement, which has today become more important than ever before,” Smith wrote in his email to FAS faculty and staff.

According to Jorge I. Domínguez—who is stepping down from his positions as vice provost for international affairs and special adviser for international studies to Smith—Gill will work closely with his successor and carry out some of the work the vice provost would normally do, but specifically focus on FAS-issues that “requir[e] more sustained attention.”

Gill has been at Harvard since 1977 and has served as administrative dean for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for more than 20 years. She said her work as administrative dean for international affairs in FAS will be a “natural progression” with her previous work at Harvard.

“So much of my time—even as far back as my time as an Allston Burr senior tutor and activities largely focused in Harvard College—there has always been an international element on way or another,” Gill said, citing her work with international alumni, governments, and foundations.

Gill has worked with Fundación México en Harvard, a program that provides financial assistance to Mexican Ph.D. students at Harvard, for more than 20 years.

—Staff writer Meg P. Bernhard can be reached at meg.bernhard@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @meg_bernhard.