Christopher P. Long has been recommended to serve as the new dean of Michigan State University’s College of Arts and Letters.
If approved by the MSU Board of Trustees, his appointment would be effective July 1.
Long is associate dean for graduate and undergraduate education and professor of philosophy and classics in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State University. Long joined the philosophy faculty at Penn State in 2004 and served as director of graduate studies in philosophy from 2005 to 2010. He was appointed as associate dean for undergraduate education in 2010 and added graduate education to his portfolio in 2013.
“We are excited to welcome Dr. Long to MSU,” said MSU Provost June Pierce Youatt. “His leadership, creativity and enthusiasm will benefit not only the College of Arts and Letters, but the arts and humanities across campus.”
Long’s extensive publications in ancient Greek and contemporary continental philosophy include three books: “The Ethics of Ontology: Rethinking an Aristotelian Legacy,” “Aristotle on the Nature of Truth” and an enhanced digital book, “Socratic and Platonic Political Philosophy: Practicing a Politics of Reading.”
He is also co-founder of the Public Philosophy Journal, a project that has received more than $780,000 of funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create an innovative online space of digital scholarship and communication.
Long completed his bachelor’s degree at Wittenberg University in Ohio and his master’s and doctoral degrees at the New School for Social Research in New York.
“I am honored and excited to lead the College of Arts and Letters in its collaborative efforts to become a national leader in arts and humanities education,” Long said. “Through its excellent programs and cutting-edge research, the College of Arts and Letters is an integral part of Michigan State’s educational mission to cultivate imaginative, innovative and engaged citizen leaders who work to enrich the quality of life in communities at home and around the world.”
To learn more about Long’s administrative approach and his recent research in philosophy, digital scholarly communication and the educational use of social media technologies, visit his blog.
In addition, Long is the host of the “Digital Dialogue” podcast and can be reached on Twitter at @cplong and @deancplong.
The College of Arts and Letters educates actors, artists, designers, filmmakers, linguists, philosophers, poets, teachers, translators, writers and many more through the creative and performing arts, languages, literature and the humanities.