New Director of Honors College Announced

July 9, 2007
To: The UMBC Community
From: Arthur T. Johnson, Provost
Re: Director of the Honors College
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Anna Marshall Shields has been appointed as Director of the Honors College and Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Dr. Shields received a B.A. in French and Comparative Literature from Washington University in St. Louis, an M.A., in East Asian Studies from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. from Indiana University in Chinese. She has held academic appointments at the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Michigan, and the University of Arizona, where she was Associate Professor of Chinese.
Dr. Shields comes to UMBC with an outstanding record as a scholar, teacher, mentor, and faculty leader. Her first book was published by Harvard University’s Asia Center in 2006 and research for her second book on “The Literature of Friendship in Late Medieval China,” has been supported by National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship. She spent last year as a visiting professor at Princeton University. At the University of Arizona, she was appointed by the Dean of the College of Humanities an Honors College Faculty Member where she taught for six years and was nominated for the Honors Faculty Teaching Award.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Shields to the UMBC community. I would also like to extend special thanks to Dr. Rebecca Boehling, Associate Professor of History, and to Dr. Geoffrey Vaughan, Associate Professor of Political Science, who served as Interim Directors of the Honors College over the past two years. Thanks to their leadership, the College has moved forward and continues to be a center of excellence in the Honors University.