Michael Markham, associate dean for academic programs in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, will become the next dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, according to a Thursday email from OU Senior Vice President and Provost André-Denis Wright.
According to the email, Markham will begin his role on July 14, pending OU Board of Regents approval.
Markham is a Case-Hooper professor of biology and has served as the OU Honors College interim dean since June.
Markham studied psychology at the University of New Mexico where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.
“Since joining the OU academic community 14 years ago, Dr. Markham has consistently demonstrated strategic vision and collaborative leadership, making him exceptionally well prepared to lead our university’s largest college into its next chapter of excellence,” Wright wrote on the email.
Markham’s research focuses on neurobiology, specifically the biophysics of excitable membranes and the plasticity of excitable cells. He has also conducted research on behavioral conditioning in humans and animals.
Markham has worked at OU since 2011. Before joining OU, he was a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. At Florida International University, Markham worked as a research associate professor and an assistant professor.
Markham beat out three other candidates, including Lisa Pawloski, senior associate dean for international programming, finance and administration and a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences; Mitchell McKinney, dean of the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Akron; and Michael Blum, associate dean of the research and creative activity office at the University of Tennessee. A fourth candidate, Roger Thompson, was set to be considered among the five finalists for the position, but his public forum presentation and meet and greet on campus were suddenly cancelled without any notice.
Markham succeeds former Dean David Wrobel, who stepped down in July after serving six years in the position to become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University in New York.
During his public forum presentation, Markham spoke about the dynamic climate of higher education and the importance of the college to become flexible.
“The context and the climate of higher education is so dynamic, and it is shifting so quickly, and there are so many forces working outside of higher education that provide movements in this different direction,” Markham said “We have to get comfortable to change this. Change is going to be constant. It's going to be inevitable.”
In November, the OU Provost's Office requested an evaluation of the College of Arts and Sciences’ foreign language requirements, raising concerns from the OU community that the undergraduate language requirement would be removed. During the March OU Board of Regents meeting, Wright told OU Daily that he received the review and would go through it soon.
Markham told OU Daily that it’s important for those worried to remember that the review was just a move for administration to step back and understand how language requirements were beneficial for students.
“I can state absolutely, unequivocally that I'm committed to the importance of languages within liberal arts education that we have in Arts and Sciences,” Markham said. “What we need to be open to is that there are different ways of delivering that language instruction.”
This story was edited by Ismael Lele and Ana Barboza. Natalie Armour and Avery Avery copy edited this story.
