New A&S Faculty Welcomed to UVA

A group of new A&S faculty members pose for a group photo with A&S Dean Christa Acampora.

The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences is adding 51 new faculty members — to 24 of its departments and programs — this academic year.

Photo credit: Stephanie Gross

Before fall semester classes opened Tuesday, the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences welcomed new faculty members with a Monday afternoon reception at Hotel E’s Garden Room off the Lawn.

As Assoc. Dean for Faculty Affairs and Professor of French Alison Levine noted in her introductory remarks, the 51 new faculty members joining 24 A&S departments and programs bring with them expertise in a wide range of disciplines, with plans to collaborate across Grounds with colleagues at the University of Virginia and the broader community.

(Watch this short reception video for an "SNL-style" introduction to some of Arts & Sciences new faculty.)

Christa Acampora, the Buckner W. Clay Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, welcomed the assembled new faculty and offered a short primer on “the Lawn,” “Grounds”, “the Corner” and other UVA lingo.

“All this, we call the ‘Academical Village’. “Academical” is not really how anyone would refer to a university today, but we still do, and the village concept is still very much alive in the ways that we live and work together here,” Acampora said. “It is a place that is big enough to have world-class resources and small enough to feel like you have close neighbors.”

Noting that the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences is celebrating the Bicentennial anniversary of the first classes held at UVA, Acampora told the new faculty they were joining the University at a remarkable moment.

“Over the course of two centuries, the University has evolved and expanded opportunities for those who are included in that vision,” she said. “As a community, we are much larger, more diverse and globally minded and connected, and I think we more closely realize the ideals for this nation’s first true liberal arts university.

“That ideal is that learning, discovery, inquiry, and creative activity take place in common, together. And this is not just something for students. You are part of all of it; You are at the heart of it."