Patrick J. Maney became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in July, succeeding Joseph Quinn, who announced last spring his desire to return to the economics department faculty. Quinn had held the deanship since 1999.

Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert

A scholar of Southern history and culture, Maney has overseen two highly regarded university history programs, having served in 1997–98 as chair of the history department at Tulane University and for the next nine years as department chair at the University of South Carolina. At South Carolina, he recruited 18 new faculty, including senior professors from Emory, Harvard, and Vanderbilt universities. In 2000, The Chronicle of Higher Education described the department as “a leader in Southern and African-American history.”

Maney is a native of Wisconsin and earned his BS from Wisconsin State University–Stevens Point in 1969; he earned a doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1976. His publications include: “Young Bob” La Follette: A Biography of Robert M. La Follette, Jr., 1895–1953 (1978), and The Roosevelt Presence: The Life and Legacy of FDR (1993). A forthcoming book will examine the Clinton presidency.

In his new position at Boston College, Maney oversees both the A&S undergraduate and graduate schools, which previously had been administered separately. The former graduate dean, Michael Smyer, stepped down this past June and continues to direct the Boston College Center on Aging and Work.

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