Dear Faculty and Staff,
I write to share the news Susan Rather is stepping down from the position of chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the end of next academic year, 2026-27. We will be launching a national search to recruit a new department chair, who would begin in summer 2027.
Susan has provided a steady hand in leading the department over the past seven years through a global pandemic and a period with many faculty and staff transitions. She’s steered the department through many key milestones during her tenure, and I want to highlight just a few of those accomplishments here.
- She’s led the department through 13 promotions and 13 new faculty hires, as well as advancing faculty teaching award nominations that have resulted in five major awards. Further, she’s worked to reinvigorate faculty mentoring and leadership training to better position the department for continued success.
- She’s transformed departmental staff through more than two dozen hires and improved cross-training and operational adjustments in support of efficiency and collaboration.
- The Art Building has undergone significant facilities upgrades to its teaching and lab spaces in recent years; most recently, Susan advanced the case for a major renovation of the sculpture lab, set to commence this summer.
- On the fiscal front, she’s overseen a significant overhaul of the graduate funding model and provided responsible stewardship of department budgets during a period of larger funding contraction on campus.
- Under her leadership, the Visual Arts Center has elevated professional standards and fiscal management. On her watch, the St. Elmo Artist Residency transitioned to departmental management, under the umbrella of the VAC.
Susan has also been an excellent colleague and collaborator with the Dean’s Office, as well as a strong partner with the Department of Design in sharing spaces, resources and expertise.
In addition to her work as an administrator, Susan has a long record of teaching and scholarship as a specialist in American Art. During the period shortly before becoming chair, she won significant external support for her research in being named as the inaugural Tyson Scholar at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and receiving a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship. In 2018, she was awarded the Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in American Art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum for her book The American School.
Please join me in thanking Susan Rather for her many years of stable leadership of and service to the department.
Sincerely,
