KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 7, 2021 \u2013 Jeannette E. Riley, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University Rhode Island, has been named to the Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. Riley joins four other new members on the 19-member board. Their terms began April 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese leaders bring experience in strategic storytelling and branding, higher education, finance, and business development,\u201d the humanities council said in its April 6 press release announcing the new members. \u201cEach is deeply involved in communities across Rhode Island.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to join the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities team and work with them to further their efforts in spreading humanities initiatives across the state,\u201d said Riley. \u201cThe humanities expand how we understand history, our own and other cultures, what we value, and who we can become. Most importantly, the humanities develop empathy, creativity, imagination, and civic engagement\u2014all essential attributes for the sustenance of our communities and democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to joining 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2018, Riley was a professor of English and women\u2019s and gender studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where she also served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2012-2017. At 溏心vlog免费B站, she also serves as a professor of English and gender and women\u2019s studies. Her research interests focus on women\u2019s literature with an emphasis on contemporary women writers and feminist theory, and feminist pedagogy and online\/blended teaching and learning.<\/p>\n
In addition to publications on writers such as Eavan Boland, Toni Morrison and Terry Tempest William, Riley has published extensively on American poet Adrienne Rich and is the author of \u201cUnderstanding Adrienne Rich,\u201d part of the University of South Carolina\u2019s Understanding Contemporary American Literature series. Her public humanities work includes teaching literature for the Clemente Course in the Humanities in New Bedford (2006-2015) and the Providence Clemente Veterans Initiative (2018-2021), which earned a 2020 Innovation in Humanities award from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.<\/p>\n
Riley earned her bachelor\u2019s degree at Colby College, her master\u2019s in English from the University of New Hampshire, and her Ph.D. in English in post-1945 American and British literature and literary theory from the University of New Mexico.<\/p>\n
Riley joins new members Jeannine Dingus-Eason, Ph.D., dean of the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development at Rhode Island College; Jorge Mejia, director of finance at the International Charter School in Pawtucket; Doug Popovich, director of Storytelling & Presentations at CVS Health; and Marcia Sousa Da Ponte, a former Vice-Consul of Portugal and currently a member of several Portuguese-American cultural organizations in Rhode Island and member of the Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Day of Portugal Committee.<\/p>\n