UNK- Dr. Francis Harrold, current chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington, has been named the new Dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He will also be appointed concurrently as professor of Sociology and Social Work. Harrold’s appointment becomes effective July 15 pending the approval of the Board of Regents at their June 17 meeting. Dr. Michael Schuyler announced his resignation from the post in September 1999.
Chancellor Gladys Styles Johnston said Harrold’s tremendous record of scholarly activities and service will be an outstanding benefit to the College of Natural and Social Sciences and the entire university.
“Francis Harrold brings to the University of Nebraska at Kearney a truly outstanding record of scholarship and administrative leadership,” Johnston said. “The College of Natural and Social Sciences has a long tradition of effective, strong leadership. We know that Dean Harrold will continue that practice as he brings new and fresh perspectives to the University of Nebraska at Kearney community and to our administrative team.”
Harrold has been at UTA since 1980. In 1991 he became director of the Anthropology Program at that institution, and since 1995 he has served as chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. From 1978 to 1979 he was a sessional lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and also served as a visiting assistant professor in that department from 1979 to 1980. Harrold received a bachelor of arts degree in Anthropology in 1970 from Loyola University in Chicago, a masters of art degree in 1974 from the University of Chicago, and earned the Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Chicago.
The co-author of three books, his research interests include Paleoanthropology, Paleolithic and Mesolithic archaeology of Europe and the Mediterranean, lithic artifacts, Paleolithic mortuary studies, creationism and other popular beliefs about the human past. His books, co-written with R.A. Eve, include Cult Archaeology and Creationism: Understanding Pseudoscientific Beliefs about the Past (1987) and its expanded edition published in 1995, and The Creationist Movement in Modern America (1990).
In addition, he is the author and co-author of numerous journal articles, book chapters, reviews, papers and presentations, and has two works currently in press and an additional two that have been submitted for publication. Harrold has coordinated several symposiums, and has done extensive field research in such locations as Portugal, Spain, Albania, France, and more. He has also received prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships.
Harrold was a faculty advisor for the UTA Anthropology Club, the UTA Chapter of Lambda Alpha-The National Anthropology Honorary Society, and the UTA Cambodian Students Organization. He also presented numerous invited lectures to groups including the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University and Southern Methodist University, The Dallas chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America, the Arlington public elementary schools, and more. He was a 1995 nominee for the UTA Faculty Research Award, and his co-authored book Cult Archaeology and Creationism: Understanding Pseudoscientific Beliefs about the Past was named as a “Social Science Book of the Month” by Society in 1988. He is a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Society for American Archaeology, Society for Prehistorique Franchaise, Lambda Alpha, and the Scientific Advisory Board for the North Texas Skeptics.
Harrold and his wife have two children and will be relocating to Kearney in early July.
