Clemson chooses dean for College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities

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Nicholas Vazsonyi has been chosen to lead the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities at Clemson University. He is currently chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and serves as the Jesse Chapman Alcorn Memorial Professor of Languages at the University of South Carolina.

Vazsonyi will begin his new position at Clemson University on July 1, according to a news release.

“We welcome Dr. Vazsonyi as our newest dean, and look forward to his dynamic leadership,” said Robert H. Jones, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at Clemson University, said in the news release. “Nicholas is a global thinker who understands the challenges of the future, a scholar who recognizes the full value of both design and humanities disciplines in the college, and he is a leader who never forgets that people are the heart of a university.”

At the University of South Carolina, Vazsonyi directed 11 language programs and supervised 65 full-time faculty, the release said. Vazsonyi guided a strategic planning process, began online courses, and recently launched a division offering additional languages, including ASL, Korean and Hebrew.

“I am thrilled to be joining Clemson at an exciting time of growth with the ambitious plans laid out in ClemsonForward,” Vazsonyi said in the release. “The college offers a unique combination of disciplines that, individually and collectively, speak directly to who we are as human beings and as a culture and civilization.”

As a scholar, Vazsonyi’s specialties include German national identity; writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; composer Richard Wagner; Enlightenment and Romanticism; and cultural intersections in music, literature and film. Vazsonyi has authored two books and more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and has edited five additional books including The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia, the release said.