Mark Kornbluh, a scholar who unites the arts and sciences through his dual expertise in history and technology, has been tapped as the new dean of the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences. Currently professor and chair of the Department of History at Michigan State University, he also holds an appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Kornbluh will take the reins of the UK College of Arts and Sciences at the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year, his appointment was approved by the UK Board of Trustees at their meeting June 9.

Kornbluh graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with honors from the University of California - Berkeley in 1977, earning a bachelor's degree in history and political science. He earned his master's degree (1979) and doctorate (1988) in American history from The Johns Hopkins University.

“I believe that public research universities are the key to our future. I am passionately committed to the mission of the University of Kentucky to advance knowledge, educate the next generation of citizens, and reach out to the state, the country, and the larger world. In a world that is more interconnected than ever before, in which cross-cultural understanding is essential to peace, sustainable economic growth is essential to prosperity, and scientific advancement is essential to public health, that mission has never been more important," said Kornbluh.

As chair of the history department at Michigan State, Kornbluh managed more than 50 tenure-track faculty positions, more than 80 graduate students, 800 undergraduate majors and an annual budget of $4 million. In 1998 he became the founding director of MATRIX: the Center for the Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences at Michigan State. MATRIX is one of the nation's largest humanities technology centers. From 1997 to 2004, Kornbluh was the executive director of "H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences OnLine," the world's largest online scholarly society. Over the past fifteen years, Kornbluh served as the lead principle investigator on over two dozen collaborative research and education grants from government agencies and foundations including the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the U.S Departments of State and Education, and the Mellon and Ford Foundations.

Kornbluh is the author of the book "Why America Stopped Voting: The Decline of Participatory Democracy and the Emergence of Modern Electoral Politics, 1880-1918" (New York University Press, 2000). He has been deeply involved in a wide range of international projects, particularly in West and South Africa, to utilize new Internet technologies for democracy and development and to preserve and provide access to a broad array of cultural heritage resources . Kornbluh is a member of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Social Science History Association, the African Studies Association, the Oral History Association, the Society for History Teaching, the Society of Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era and H-Net.

"Dr. Kornbluh has extensive background and interest in interdisciplinary scholarship and education. He has also been very entrepreneurial in finding support for his initiatives at Michigan State. I expect this experience set will serve UK’s College of Arts and Sciences very well at this juncture," said UK Provost Kumble R. Subbaswamy.

"As Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, I look forward to working with an excellent faculty," said Kornbluh. "My goal is to facilitate the research of our faculty while providing our students with a superior education."

Allison Elliott - UK Public Relations