New Dean: Catherine Gunther Kodat

Catherine Gunther Kodat will become the new dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in July.

Catherine Gunther Kodat will become the new dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in July. Kodat is currently acting provost and professor of humanities at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She previously served as director of the American Studies Program at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.

Since 2012, Kodat has been at the University of the Arts, where she previously served as dean of the Division of Liberal Arts and acting director of the Film and Media Studies Program. At Hamilton College, she was chair of the Department of English and Creative Writing and received Hamilton’s Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award. She has published widely on topics of 20th-century literature and culture.

“Lewis & Clark has it all: nationally prominent, illustrious faculty; wonderfully gifted, big-hearted students; a talented, dedicated team of staff and administrators; and a campus of almost unworldly beauty,” says Kodat. “I’m excited to be joining a college with such longstanding commitments to international education, social justice, and environmental stewardship.”

Kodat earned her PhD in English from Boston University. She began her undergraduate education at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano. Early in her career, Kodat wrote for the Baltimore Sun, where she was a metro desk reporter and the paper’s chief dance critic.