Emory University Names New Graduate School Dean

Emory University has named Robert Paul as the next dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Provost Rebecca Chopp announced last week that Paul, current director of the Institute of Liberal Arts and Candler Professor of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies, will take the reins of the graduate school on June 1, succeeding Don Stein, dean since 1995. Stein will use an upcoming sabbatical to do research as a Fulbright scholar and to co-author a book.

"This search was intense and prolonged," says Chopp, who chaired the search committee that selected Paul from a group of three finalists. "Bobby Paul knows the heart and soul of Emory and understands what a world-class research university is. We're very excited one of our own will be the new dean."

Paul says that despite his experience with the Institute of Liberal Arts and as chairman of the anthropology department, the deanship will be quite a transition for him. "I'm very pleased and excited to be taking on this task, and I look forward to continued close cooperation with my faculty colleagues, graduate students and now this administration," he says.

President William Chace says Paul's "intelligence, his depth of wisdom, his long experience with Emory and his intellectual breadth" were the factors that set Paul ahead of his peers. "I believe he will want to secure our graduate program, in both teaching and research, as a top priority of the university," Chace says. "He will have lots of help in achieving this aspiration."

Paul has been on the Emory faculty since 1977. Paul served on the faculties of the City College of New York, City University of New York and Stanford University before coming to Emory. He received his bachelor's degree in history and literature from Harvard University in 1963, then earned his master's and doctoral degrees in anthropology at the University of Chicago in 1966 and 1970 respectively. His book "Moses and Civilization: The Meaning Behind Freud's Myth" received the Heinz Hartman Award, the National Jewish Book Award and the L. Bryce Boyer Prize. Paul also is an award-winning researcher, but plans to devote his full energies to the deanship.

"Emory has tremendous potential and has already realized some of that, but the university is in a phase where it can do some exciting things over the next few years," Paul says. "I have a lot of confidence in the current administration and the people I'll be working with. I think it will be an exciting time for me, and I hope for all my colleagues and students."

Paul is a resident of Stone Mountain, Ga. (30087).

Note to editors: an electronic photograph is available upon request.