Lisa Henderson has been appointed to a five-year term as the new Dean of Western University’s Faculty of Information & Media Studies (FIMS), commencing January 1, 2019 through June 2024.
Following an international search, Henderson’s appointment was advanced with the unanimous support of the Senate-appointed FIMS Decanal Selection Committee and it received the formal endorsement of the President and Western’s Board of Governors through the Board’s Senior Policy and Operations Committee. Henderson will succeed former FIMS Dean Thomas Carmichael.
“I know that Lisa will provide strong and creative leadership for the faculty, including a collegial and open approach to developing a strategic vision for FIMS in the foreseeable future,” says Western Provost & Vice-President (Academic) Janice Deakin.
Henderson comes to Western from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is currently a Professor of Communication and Faculty Affiliate in American Studies. After joining UMass Amherst in 1993, Henderson has served in several other roles including Director of the Five College Center for Crossroads in the Study of the Americas from 2005 to 2009 and Chair of the Department of Communication from 2009 to 2013.
Prior to her tenure at UMass Amherst, she served on faculty at The Pennsylvania State University (1988-93) and worked for a year as a radio producer with CJRT-FM in Toronto. Henderson holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Radio and Television) from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, as well as masters and doctoral degrees in Communication and Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.
With research specialties in cultural production, media and cultural studies, feminist and queer studies, class cultures, ethnographic research methods, textual criticism, and research-creation, Henderson has published 30 journal articles and book chapters and has delivered more than 50 invited lectures and juried conference presentations. Among her academic honors and distinctions, Henderson received the Roy F. Aarons Award for Outstanding Contribution to GLBT Education and Research in 2011 from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and her 2014 book Love and Money: Queers, Class and Cultural Production was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in LGBT Studies.
Susan Knabe, FIMS Associate Dean (Undergraduate) since 2014, will serve as Acting FIMS Dean from July 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018.
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