President Weisbuch recently announced that Robert Ready has been appointed Dean of the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. In making his announcement, Weisbuch stressed that “As the University seeks to achieve greater impact from our graduate programs, we are fortunate to have a leader of Bob’s experience, and personal and intellectual qualities.”
Ready, who is also currently the Donald R. and Winifred B. Baldwin Professor of Humanities, Professor of English, and Convener of the Arts & Letters Program, has led the graduate school as interim dean since last summer. He first joined the Drew faculty in 1970 shortly after earning a Ph.D. at Columbia University and held the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Professorship at Drew from 1996-2000.
The Caspersen School of Graduate Studies opened in 1955 and today has five degree-granting programs that Ready describes as “doing the humanities.” Reflecting on his appointment Ready notes, “I hope that in my own way, I can work worthily in the line of the deans of the graduate school I have known in my time at Drew: Bard Thompson, Merrill Skaggs, Jim Pain, Edye Lawler, and Rich Greenwald.”