Features: June 17, 2002

John P. Harrington Named Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences

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John P. Harrington, dean and professor of humanities at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, has been named dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rensselaer. He will begin his tenure in August.

"Dr. Harrington brings a full complement of academic experiences as an administrator, a researcher, and a faculty member," said President Shirley Ann Jackson. "His vast experience at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art will be wholly utilized at Rensselaer, and he will play a major role in identifying and nurturing opportunities that build on the school's core strengths."

At Cooper Union the faculty of humanities and social sciences provides liberal arts requirements for the baccalaureate degrees of the separate schools of Architecture, Art, and Engineering. In addition to serving as dean of humanities, Harrington has taken on additional responsibilities as chair of the President's Academic Council, as director of the Cooper Union library and library technology, and as director of the Humanities Gallery, a public exhibition space.

Harrington was educated at Columbia University and University College, Dublin, and he earned his Ph.D. in literature from Rutgers University. He has written extensively on Irish literature and culture, including the books The English Traveller in Ireland (1990); The Irish Beckett (1991); and The Irish Play on the New York Stage (1997). He edited W.W. Norton's anthology Modern Irish Drama (1991) and, most recently, co-edited with the sociologist Elizabeth Mitchell a collection of interdisciplinary essays published as Politics and Performance in Contemporary Northern Ireland (1999). He frequently lectures on theater and Irish culture.