Dear Members of the ºÚÁÏÍø Community,
I write today to share news that Tracey E. Hucks ’87, MA ’90, James A. Storing Professor of Religion and Africana and Latin American Studies, will leave ºÚÁÏÍø to join the faculty at Harvard University. Beginning this fall, she will become the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School while also assuming the Suzanne Young Murray Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
As ºÚÁÏÍø’s Provost and Dean of the Faculty, a role that drew her back to her alma mater at a decisive time in the history of the institution, she offered to us her extensive years in the liberal arts, her administrative experience as department chair and program director at both Haverford and Davidson colleges, her insight as a scholar, her skill as a teacher, and her wise counsel as a graduate of the University. Dean Hucks brought her distinctive, thoughtful perspective into her engagement with governance structures that have long been in place on this campus, assuming a central role in the development of both the Third-Century Plan and the Plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as well as several new faculty support initiatives. This work will shape the University for decades, even as she continues to pursue her research and teaching in Cambridge. Meanwhile, her central role in faculty recruitment will echo through the years at ºÚÁÏÍø in the numerous faculty members hired during her tenure as provost.
At one of our most challenging moments in University history, when the COVID-19 pandemic required us to close the campus and move to remote instruction, Dean Hucks again provided leadership in the continuation of ºÚÁÏÍø’s academic mission. Throughout this time, and in the period that followed as we reopened the campus, she balanced her commitment to academic rigor with her heartfelt compassion for faculty, staff members, and students as we navigated the challenges presented by the pandemic.
ºÚÁÏÍø has been shaped by Dean Hucks’ grace and her intellect, through all of this work and engagement with the broad University community.
Again, I thank her on behalf of the University, and I wish her the best of luck as she takes up her new academic postings at Harvard. Upon her return to Hamilton, we will be sure to provide an opportunity to thank Tracey in person and celebrate her contributions to ºÚÁÏÍø.
Sincerely,
Brian W. Casey
President