Scholar, Administrator Sharon Salinger Takes Post This Month

Sharon V. Salinger, historian and veteran university administrator, has been named dean of the Division of Undergraduate Education at UC Irvine, effective July 1.

Salinger comes to Irvine from UC Riverside, where she has been a faculty member for 25 years, and was most recently professor and chair of the history department.

As dean of undergraduate education, Salinger oversees campuswide programs and provides leadership in developing policies and programs affecting student retention, course offerings, academic advising and mentoring, and the campus climate for teaching and learning.

"Professor Salinger demonstrates a remarkable commitment to undergraduate education, and has an exemplary record of university service," said Executive Vice Chancellor Michael R. Gottfredson. "I am extremely pleased to have her join the UCI community and lead our stellar undergraduate education program."

At UC Riverside, Salinger served two years as part time associate dean for student affairs, a year and a half as interim director for the Center for Ideas and Society, and seven years as associate dean for student academic affairs. In addition to her administrative roles, she was involved with department, college and senate committees related to teaching and to issues of educational policy. Salinger is the recipient of UCR's Distinguished Teaching Award, as well.

"I'm extremely honored to have been selected for this position and look forward to enhancing an already dynamic and rich undergraduate program," Salinger said. "UCI is clearly a place where faculty and administration care deeply about undergraduate education."

In addition to her role as dean, Salinger will hold a professorship in the history department and continue her research, which focuses primarily in early American social history. She is the editor of a book and author of two more, including most recently "Taverns and Drinking in Early America," which chronicles the ways in which the tavern preserved traditional privileges.

"We are thrilled that distinguished scholar and professor Sharon Salinger will be joining our faculty," said Alice Fahs, acting chair of the history department. "A renowned scholar of early American history and a superb teacher, Professor Salinger builds on the already substantial strengths of our department in early modern social and cultural history."

Salinger, who received her bachelor's and doctoral degrees in history from UCLA, travels to the East Coast to conduct research in the summer and jokes that she times her trips with garbage strikes and high humidity. She enjoys playing the bassoon and will move to University Hills later this summer.

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