Sociologist, administrator selected as dean of UO College of Arts & Sciences

EUGENE, Ore. -- (Feb 25, 2008) -- After an extensive national search, a veteran administrator and sociologist from the University of California, Riverside, has been tapped to lead the University of Oregon College of Arts & Sciences, UO Senior Vice President and Provost Linda Brady announced today.

Scott Coltrane, currently associate dean of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at UC Riverside, is slated to start work at the UO on July 1, 2008. As dean of the UO's College of Arts & Sciences, Coltrane will oversee more than 40 academic departments, programs, centers and institutes in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.

"Scott has a compelling vision for the liberal arts and sciences that is essential to sustaining academic quality at the University of Oregon," Brady said. "We are delighted that he has accepted this critical leadership position at the UO."


Coltrane, who has been an associate dean at UC Riverside since 2004, chaired the institution's sociology department from 1999 to 2003. He has written about marriage, parenting, domestic labor, popular culture, ethnicity and structural inequality in various scholarly journals, including the American Journal of Sociology, Social Problems, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Sex Roles, and Gender & Society. Coltrane, whose research focuses on fathers, is the author of several books including "Family Man" and "Gender and Families."

"Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are among the finest researchers and teachers in the world. As dean of the college, I will do everything in my power to support and sustain them in their efforts to make new discoveries and to pass on knowledge to future generations," Coltrane said. "My goal for the college is to sustain an intellectual environment that promotes new ways to understand the world and applies that knowledge to make the world a better place."

About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of 62 of the leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. Membership in the AAU is by invitation only. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.

Contact: Zack Barnett, UO Office of Public and Media Relations, 541-346-3145, zbarnett@uoregon.edu