Kristina Bross named as dean of OHIO’s Honors Tutorial College

Ohio University Executive Vice President and Provost Dr. Elizabeth Sayrs has named Dr. Kristina Bross as dean of the Honors Tutorial College.

Bross currently serves as the senior associate dean for research and creative endeavors at the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University. She is a professor of English, specializing in early American studies. She will begin her role at OHIO on July 29, 2024. 

“Dr. Kristina Bross is an experienced leader and award-winning educator who will help the college continue to build on its history of excellence,” Sayrs said. “Her work with the John Martinson Honors College, her vision for the Honors Tutorial College and her passion for higher education will benefit our students and University in countless ways.”

In her current position at Purdue University, Bross’s responsibilities include supporting both students’ and faculty members’ success as scholars. She is a member of the college’s senior leadership team and represents the college at the university level as part of the advisory council for Purdue’s Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships.

At Purdue, Bross has won numerous teaching awards, including the Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, the university’s highest award for undergraduate instruction. She has been deeply involved with honors education at Purdue; she served on the task force to create the honors college, was a founding member of the college’s Faculty Governance Committee, and has served as Associate Dean of Research since 2016. 

She is the author or editor of several books of early American studies, including the monographs Dry Bones and Indian Sermons: Praying Indians in Colonial America (Cornell University Press, 2004) and Future History: Global Fantasies in Seventeenth-Century British and American Literature (Oxford University Press, 2017). She was a Fulbright Scholar at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany and is a past president of the Society of Early Americanists.  

Bross earned her B.A. in English from Lawrence University, M.A. in English from the University of Chicago, and Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago.

Bross reflected on her campus visit and meetings with students, faculty, and staff: “The more I learn about the first half century of honors at OHIO, the more excited I am to join such an innovative community and work together on the college’s next steps.”

The search committee for the dean position was chaired by Dr. Lisa Harrison, interim dean of the Patton College of Education, and Dr. Matthew Cornish, associate professor of theater history in the College of Fine Arts.  

“Our search committee brought forward an outstanding pool of candidates for this position,” Sayrs said. “I am grateful to all of the committee members for their time and dedication to this process.”

Bross will follow Interim Dean Beth Novak, who has served in the position since Jan. 1, 2023, after former dean Donal Skinner left the university for a position at the University of Texas at Dallas.

“I am so thankful to Beth Novak for her outstanding leadership as the interim dean,” Sayrs said. “She has played a key role during a critical time for the Honors Tutorial College, and I am grateful that she will continue to serve as interim dean throughout the spring semester and into the summer.”