SMU’s new dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences is an academic administrator with experience in strategic affairs as well as an accomplished scholar-teacher in English and ethnic studies. Cordelia Chávez Candelaria comes to SMU from Arizona State University. Her appointment, which ends a nationwide search, is effective July 1. Professor of Anthropology Caroline Brettell has served as Dedman College interim dean for the past two years.

At Arizona State, Candelaria is Regents Professor in the Department of English and the Department of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, a department she once chaired. She also serves as associate dean of the Office of Strategic Initiatives in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“What impressed everyone who met with her during the interview process was her ability to think strategically across the spectrum of disciplines represented in the College,” says Paul W. Ludden, provost and vice president for academic affairs at SMU.

As dean of Dedman College, Candelaria will lead the largest of SMU’s colleges and schools, with a faculty of more than 250 and 2,000 students enrolled as majors or minors.

“As we approach our centennial with a new major gifts campaign, we are committed to raising resources for enhancements to Dedman College,” says President R. Gerald Turner. “Cordelia Candelaria has the experience and vision to provide the leadership needed to meet our aspirations.”

All SMU students begin their education in Dedman College, where they take general studies courses before choosing a major in another SMU school or within the College. “I look forward to working with my new colleagues to advance Dedman College programs to flourishing levels of achievement, innovation and visibility, which will have a positive impact on our shared interconnected global reality,” Candeleria says. As founding associate dean for ASU’s Office of Strategic Initiatives, Candelaria focused on enhancing diversity among faculty, administrators and staff for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as advancing interdisciplinary programs.

She has remained an active teacher and researcher, receiving 18 grants from external funding agencies totaling $3.5 million. She is the sole author of six books and “chapbooks” – pamphlets containing poems, ballads, stories or religious tracts – and has edited or co-edited 10 books, monographs and periodicals. She also has written nearly 200 book chapters, articles, reviews and poems in periodicals and anthologies.

Among her numerous awards, she received in 2005 the Outstanding Latina Cultural Award in Literary Arts and Publications from the American Association for Higher Education Hispanic Caucus. She previously was named a Senior Fulbright Scholar in American Literature at Universidad Católica de Lima, Perú. In 1991 she became only the third recipient of The Americas Award from the University of Colorado, Boulder, following previous winners Carlos Fuentes and U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.

Candelaria earned a B.A. degree with honors in English and French from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado; a Master’s degree in English from the University of Notre Dame; and a Ph.D. in American literature and linguistics from Notre Dame. In 1970-72 she studied under a Woodrow Wilson Graduate Fellowship.