Congratulations to Dr. Judith Stoddart in being appointed Associate Provost for University Collections and Arts Initiatives!

In this new position, Dr. Stoddart will be responsible for supporting those units across campus that hold significant cultural and intellectual collections that serve the research, scholarship, and outreach missions of the University. These units include MSU’s museums, archives, and libraries. She will also serve as the coordinator for the comprehensive, campus-wide arts strategy.

Professor Stoddart recently served as Interim Dean of the Graduate School and Interim Associate Provost for Graduate Education, from June of 2015 to September of 2017. Prior to that she was associate dean in the Graduate School, serving as a co-PI and project director for grants focused on graduate program improvement and graduate student retention and completion, and coordinating the University Fellowship Programs. She has also served as the associate chair and director of graduate programs in the Department of English. She received her BA in English and French as a National Merit Scholar at MSU and, after being selected as a Rhodes Scholar, attended Oxford University, where she earned a master’s and doctorate in English. Her research interests in nineteenth and early twentieth-century literature and culture include theories of print culture and visual culture (including painting, photography, and industrial exhibitions), and the changing conceptions of aesthetic experience and practices in that period.

In her faculty and Graduate School roles, Dr. Stoddart’s work has involved teaching and scholarly collaborations with each of our museums. She has a keen sense of the importance of the museums and libraries in the lives of our campus and extended community, and a vision for how, through collaboration, their collective influence can be expanded.