As announced earlier, Professor Antoinette Handley will serve as Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science from July 1 to December 31, 2024, while Dean Melanie Woodin is on planned administrative leave.
Professor Handley is a full professor in the Department of Political Science, where she has also served as Chair and Graduate Chair. While Professor Handley is Acting Dean, she will step away from her role as Vice-Dean, Graduate Education at the Faculty of Arts & Science. Professor Michael Brudno, of the Department of Computer Science, will be Acting Vice-Dean, Graduate Education during this time.
Professor Handley earned her undergraduate degree at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa and read for her MPhil in International Relations at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. She then earned her PhD in political science at Princeton University in 2003.
Professor Handley's research interests include African state-business relations and the nature of the capital class and elites in Africa. She is the principal investigator of the Elite Africa Project, which aims to redefine the notion of power in Africa and shift public perceptions of the continent’s most prominent citizens.