University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences has found a new dean following a months-long nationwide search. Anna Westerstahl Stenport, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Rochester Institute of Technology, will assume the role of dean of Franklin College on June 1.
Stenport is a professor of communication and an expert in transnational cinema and media, modern literature and drama, and visual and cultural studies, with a focus on the Arctic and Nordic regions. As dean of the College of Liberal Arts at RIT, she heads 13 departments and 25 degree programs in humanities, performing arts, social and cognitive sciences as well as leading the college’s research and external funding initiatives, and day-to-day operations.
A native of Sweden, Stenport began her academic career as an international student at UGA before moving back home to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Uppsala University. She holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley.
Stenport succeeds Alan Dorsey, who is returning to the faculty after leading Franklin College since 2012.