Stetson University has selected Karen L. Ryan, a scholar of 20^th-century Russian satire coming from the University of Virginia, as the new dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Ryan will also hold a faculty position, as professor of Russian language and literature. She will start at Stetson on July 23.

“Dr. Ryan will further advance academic excellence at Stetson University by building on our steadfast commitment to liberal learning in all fields and leading the college toward more innovative approaches to learning that emphasize academic challenge and rigor, interdisciplinary learning and social responsibility,” said Elizabeth “Beth” Paul, Stetson provost and vice president for academic affairs. “She joins the full academic leadership team in raising Stetson’s national and international profile as an innovator of 21^st century transformational learning and scholarship.”

Ryan has been a member of the University of Virginia faculty since 1989, serving as a professor of Russian language and literature and directing the UVA in Russia summer program. She has 10 years of administrative experience at UVA, including department chair of the Slavic Department, associate dean of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in the UVA College of Arts and Sciences, and as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Ryan has a deep interest in international education. As an assistant professor in the early 1990s, she created and directed UVA semester and summer programs for Russian language study in Kazan, Tatarstan. She helped integrate the Semester at Sea program into UVA curriculum and served as academic dean of the program in 2008. She has been involved in an initiative to fund and mentor undergraduates’ independent research since its inception a decade ago, and recently worked with the Provost’s Office in initiating a service learning program that is now successfully established.

“I’m enormously excited to be joining the Stetson community,” Ryan said. “I’ve been impressed with Stetson’s remarkable balance of classroom education with experiential learning and civic engagement. I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running and working with faculty, staff, students and alumni to move the College of Arts & Sciences to even higher levels of excellence.”

Ryan previously taught at Iowa State University, Williams College and the University of Michigan. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the Universityof Michigan and received her undergraduate degree in Russian and Soviet Studies from Cornell University. She has published widely on questions of genre, narration, and parody in contemporary Russian literature. Most recently, she published a monograph titled Images of Stalin in Russian Satire, 1917-1991 (University of Wisconsin Press, 2009).

Ryan has received many academic honors and fellowships, including the UVA New Education Abroad Grant in 2010. She is a member of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies and the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.

Ryan has four grown children. Her husband, Paul Madden, is also joining Stetson, as a senior programmer.

Ryan will succeed Grady Ballenger, who has served as dean since 1998 and now plans to return to the Stetson classroom in his position as a professor of English.