The MSU Board of Trustees approved the appointment of Dr. Christopher P. Long as the next dean of Michigan State University’s College of Arts & Letters effective July 1, 2015.  Dr. Elizabeth H. Simmons, who has served as acting dean since August 1, 2014, will continue in that role until Long starts in July 2015.

“Since its founding in 1962, the College of Arts & Letters has created and developed premier arts and humanities programs that push the boundaries of discovery, deepen our understanding of the world we share, and contribute to broader attempts to redress the major challenges of our times,” says Long. “As dean, I hope to expand a culture of excellence in research and teaching within the college, to deepen its long standing commitments to diversity and interdisciplinarity, and to create new opportunities for collaboration with MSU and community partners.”

“An education in the arts and humanities teaches you how to think in innovative ways, imagine new possibilities, work collaboratively, write and speak well. For these reasons, and because it is attuned to the deepest questions of the human condition, the arts and humanities endeavor is at the heart of every research project and every classroom experience here at MSU.”

An education in the arts and humanities teaches you how to think in innovative ways, imagine new possibilities, work collaboratively, write and speak well.

Formerly associate dean for graduate and undergraduate education and professor of philosophy and classics in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State University, Long joined the philosophy faculty at Penn State in 2004 and served as director of graduate studies in philosophy from 2005 to 2010. He was appointed associate dean for undergraduate education in 2010 and added graduate education to his portfolio in 2013.

He is also co-founder of the Public Philosophy Journal, a project that has received more than $780,000 of funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create an innovative online space of digital scholarship and communication.

Long completed his bachelor’s degree at Wittenberg University in Ohio and his master’s and doctoral degrees at the New School for Social Research in New York.

To learn more about Long’s administrative approach and his recent research in philosophy, digital scholarly communication and the educational use of social media technologies, visit his blog. In addition, Long is the host of the “Digital Dialogue” podcast and can be reached on Twitter at @cplong and @deancplong.