Professor Silvia Tomášková named Dean of the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

I am delighted to announce that the Board of Governors of UBC has approved the appointment of Professor Silvia Tomášková as the inaugural Dean of the new Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for a five-year term, beginning December 1, 2020.

Professor Tomášková joins UBC Okanagan from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is the Druscilla French Distinguished Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Professor of Anthropology. Her most recent leadership role was to serve as the Chair of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Chapel Hill.

Professor Tomášková received her BA from McGill University, her Master's degrees from Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley, and her PhD in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focuses on the history of archaeology and anthropology as scientific disciplines, representations of the past and the formation of theory as a historically-situated practice. Deeply committed to the representation of neglected voices, Professor Tomášková is currently working on prehistoric art in the Northern Cape, South Africa.

I hope you will all join me in welcoming Professor Tomášková to the campus. I look forward to working with the new Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences as it begins its journey.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the students, faculty and staff who participated in this search, and the Search Committee for its work in bringing this process to a successful conclusion.

Ananya Mukherjee Reed
Provost and Vice-President Academic
UBC Okanagan