Ithaca College

Submitted on behalf of Provost Linda Petrosino.

Provost Linda Petrosino announced today that Michael Richardson will serve as interim dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences for the 2015–16 academic year, while a search for the successor to Leslie Lewis is conducted. Richardson is currently the school’s associate dean for faculty and special initiatives; Lewis announced in March that she has accepted the position of provost and vice president for academic affairs at Goucher College.

“I am pleased that Mike will continue in a leadership role within the School of Humanities and Sciences,” said Petrosino. “His service as a faculty member and a department chair within H&S, coupled with his last two years as the associate dean, provides experience and knowledge that will prove valuable in the interim position. I am grateful that Mike has agreed to contribute his leadership during the transitional period.”

As associate dean, Richardson has been responsible for providing overall direction in support of faculty within the School of Humanities and Sciences, particularly in the areas of professional development, research, and external grants. He joined the college in 1998 and has taught a variety of German courses in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. He served as department chair from 2008–2012 and was promoted to full professor in 2014.

Richardson’s scholarly research focuses on German cinema, German literature and theater, Holocaust studies, and cultural studies. He edited “A New History of German Cinema,” which was named film book of the year for 2012 by the respected German film scholar Hans-Helmut Prinzler, and is the author of “Revolutionary Theater and the Classical Heritage: Inheritance and Appropriation from Weimar to the GDR.” He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal New German Critique and is currently working on a book-length study of representations of Hitler and the Nazis in popular culture.

He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from Cornell University, and an A.B. from Stanford University.