Athens, Ga. – Hugh Ruppersburg, senior associate dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia, will serve as interim dean of the college effective Aug. 1, while a national search is conducted for a new dean.
Garnett Stokes, who has served as dean of the Franklin College for the past seven years, is leaving the university to take a position as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Florida State University.
A search committee will be appointed in early fall, said Jere Morehead, UGA’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. Ruppersburg will not be a candidate for the permanent position.
“I am very grateful to Dr. Ruppersburg for stepping into the role of interim dean while a search is conducted,” said Morehead. “The Franklin College will be in good hands.”
Ruppersburg came to UGA in 1977 and has served as associate dean of the college-UGA’s oldest and largest-since 1996. In that role, he has served as a liaison with departments in the humanities, the arts, and the human sciences.
He also has served as the college liaison with the Faculty Senate and sits on the senate’s curriculum committee. He has overseen promotion and tenure, special professorships and awards, state-of-the-art conference proposals, program reviews, assessment, and the college’s first-year seminar program, among other duties.
Ruppersburg holds a Ph.D. in American literature from the University of South Carolina and is a faculty member in the English department and a member of UGA’s Teaching Academy. A scholar of American literature and of film and literature of the American South, he has received the Albert Christ-Janer Award for Creative Research, the Governor’s Award in the Humanities, and the Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching Award.
