ACLS Board of Directors

Joy Connolly, ACLS President Read More

William C. Kirby is T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Read More

Jimena Canales is an expert in nineteenth and twentieth century history of the physical sciences, working for a better understanding of science and technology in relation to the arts and humanities. She received an MA and PhD from Harvard University in the History of Science and a BSc in Engineering… Read More

Melani McAlister is a professor of American studies and international affairs at Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University. She specializes in the multiple “global visions” produced by and for Americans. In her writing and teaching, she focuses on the ways in which cultural and political history… Read More

Marwan M. Kraidy became the dean and CEO of Northwestern University in Qatar in July 2020.  Prior to assuming this position, he was the Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics and Culture, and founding director of the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC) at the Annenberg School… Read More

James H. Averill retired in 2007 as partner from Wellington Management, an investment counsel firm based in Boston. He served in Wellington’s Radnor, PA office as a security analyst and portfolio manager on the Windsor Fund team for 23 years, specializing in financial companies. In a prior career, he taught… Read More

Peter Baldwin is professor in the history department at the University of California, Los Angeles and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University. He is interested especially in the historical development of the modern state—a broad field that has led him in many directions. Two aspects of his work unify… Read More

   Suzanne Preston Blier (Ph.D. 1981 Columbia, Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University) is an historian of African art and architecture in both the History of Art and Architecture and African and African American Studies Departments. She also is a… Read More

Frances Daly Fergusson is president emeritus of Vassar College. She served as president of Vassar from 1986-2006. Fergusson previously was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bucknell University from 1982-86. An architectural historian, Fergusson has her BA from Wellesley College and her MA and PhD from Harvard University. Read More

Theodore S. Gonzalves is a scholar of comparative cultural studies. He has taught in the United States, Spain, and the Philippines. He previously served as interim director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Currently, Gonzalves is a curator at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington,… Read More

Michèle Lamont is Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University. A cultural and comparative sociologist, she is the author or coauthor of four books and the editor of a dozen collective volumes/journal issues and over… Read More

Malinda Maynor Lowery joined Emory University as the Cahoon Family Professor of American History in July 2021, after spending 12 years at UNC-Chapel Hill and 4 years at Harvard University. She earned an AB in history and literature from Harvard University, an MA in film and video production from Stanford University,… Read More

Desiree Pedescleaux serves as Dean of Undergraduate Studies and is an associate professor of the political science department at Spelman College. A member of the faculty since 1991, she teaches courses in National Government, Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties, and Urban Politics. Pedescleaux is a member of the American Political Science Association,… Read More

Carl H. Pforzheimer III is manager of CHIPCO Asset Management, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm, and of Carl H. Pforzheimer & Co. LLC. He has chaired the boards of the National Humanities Center, Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Pace University, Horace Mann-Barnard School, and Urban Glass, and was… Read More

Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University, where he has taught since 1989. He studied at Morehouse College and Howard University before earning his doctorate in art history at Yale University. Along with teaching courses in American art, the arts… Read More

Steven Rathgeb Smith has served as director of the American Political Science Association since 2013. Before moving to APSA, he was the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He also taught for many years at the University… Read More

Dana A. Williams is a professor of African American literature and Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. She earned her BA in English from Grambling State University in Grambling, LA in 1993, her MA in 1995 from Howard University, and her PhD in African American Literature from Howard University… Read More