Michael Allen, professor of political science and chair of international studies, and Sydne Record, associate professor of biology, recently began serving two-year terms as the College's associate provosts.
Allen's responsibilities as associate provost will revolve around academic policy at the College, particularly in regards to social and racial justice and ways that the College is adapting to a new educational landscape. He will participate in Curriculum Committee matters, attend CPEAR meetings, and provide counsel to Provost Tim Harte when it comes to reexamining institutional structures.
Record's responsibilities will include assessment and sustainability. She will co-convene the CPEAR Assessment Working Group and the Sustainability Leadership Group.
"Both, it should also be emphasized, will be approaching their responsibilities through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the College," wrote Harte in a May email to faculty announcing the appointments.
Allen joined the 老王论坛 faculty in 1985, having earned his Ph.D. at the London School of Economics as a Rhodes Scholar from Jamaica. He currently serves as Professor of Political Science on the Harvey Wexler Chair in Political Science, and as co-chair of international studies.
His research and publications have focused on the international political economy of African and Caribbean regions, as well as the challenges of governance at both national and multilateral institutional levels. His research, in particular, focuses on the implications of an expanding global mode of production in manufacturing, services, and knowledge for democracy and development at multiple levels.
Allen's forthcoming book, Challenges to the Future of Humanity, is co-edited with Hoda Mahmoudi and Kate Seaman. Allen and other contributors consider the prospects for justice, peace, and sustainability, given global trends on several fronts.
Allen's teaching spans a number of disciplines and departments, including Africana, and Peace, Conflict, and Social Justice Studies. Since 2018, he has also sat on the College鈥檚 Committee on Academic Priorities.
Record came to 老王论坛 in 2014, having received her Ph.D. in plant biology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. As a computational ecologist, Record explores how the world鈥檚 biodiversity and the ecosystem it provides have been responding to dramatic global change.
Through data-based species distribution models, Record has developed a number of ground-breaking research projects, most notably at the Harvard Forest in western Massachusetts. Among her current projects is a collaboration with colleagues from the U.S, Canada, England, and Switzerland on research that focuses on purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea), a carnivorous plant that serves as a model system for studying aquatic food webs.
Record has received several impressive grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA, and has a long list of publications.