Economic historian is new dean of SMU's Dedman College
Economic historian William M. Tsutsui joins SMU on July 1 as the new dean of SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
DALLAS (SMU) – The new dean of SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences is a specialist in modern Japanese business and economic history whose books examine topics ranging from banking policy to the film icon “Godzilla.”
William M. Tsutsui joins SMU on July 1 from the University of Kansas, where he is associate dean for international studies in the College of Arts & Sciences and professor of history. Tsutsui also is director of the Kansas Consortium for Teaching About Asia in KU’s Center for East Asian Studies.
“Dr. Tsutsui is a nationally recognized scholar and dedicated teacher who will bring incredible energy and expertise to the college at a time when it is poised to make great advances,” said Paul Ludden, SMU provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.
“Dedman College is the heart of an SMU education, and Dr. Tsutsui is well equipped to lead its diverse and distinguished programs,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “He will help set the strategic course for the college and strengthen its impact on our region and broader community. We welcome him to the University family.”
“I am honored and thrilled to have been selected as dean of Dedman College,” Tsutsui said. “The College has a world-class faculty, talented students, dedicated staff and a broad base of support in the Dallas community. I look forward to working with all these constituencies, and with President Turner and Provost Ludden, to enhance Dedman College's achievements in teaching, research, and public engagement. This is a historic moment for SMU, with a major campaign underway and the university's centennial at hand, and a time of great opportunity for Dedman College.”
Tsutsui received a Ph.D. in history at Princeton University in 1995, and a Master of Arts in history there in 1990. He received a Master of Letters in Modern Japanese History from Oxford University’s Corpus Christi College in 1988 and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies in 1985.
Tsutsui is the author of Banking Policy in Japan: American Efforts at Reform During the Occupation (Routledge, 1988); Manufacturing Ideology: Scientific Management in Twentieth-Century Japan (Princeton University Press, 1998); and Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters (Palgrave, 2004). He is the editor of Banking in Japan (Routledge, 1999); A Companion to Japanese History (Blackwell, 2007); and (with Michiko Ito) In Godzilla's Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage (Palgrave, 2006).
Before assuming his current duties at KU, Tsutsui was acting director of the university’s Center for East Asian Studies and executive director of its Confucius Institute. He has been named faculty fellow at KU’s Center for Teaching Excellence, received a William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2001 and won KU’s Steeples Service to Kansas Award in 2001. Tsutsui is married to Marjorie Swann, director of the Museum Studies Program and the Conger-Gabel Teaching Professor in the Department of English at the University of Kansas. She will be joining SMU as well.
William B. Lawrence, dean of the Perkins School of Theology and search committee chair said, “We have been tremendously impressed with Dr. Tsutsui’s energy, vision, appreciation for the gifted faculty in the college, the breadth as well as the depth of his intellect, his respect for the staff, and his spirit of collegiality. The search committee enthusiastically recommended Dr. Tsutsui to the provost, and I look forward to working with him as a fellow dean.”
Provost Ludden also expressed thanks to Peter Moore, chair of SMU’s Department of Mathematics and Dedman College's associate dean for academic affairs, for serving as interim dean during the search. “Dr. Moore has done an outstanding job of stewarding the college for the past year,” Ludden said.
Dedman College is home to the humanities, social sciences, and natural and mathematical sciences as well as the general education program that all students follow before declaring a major. Tsutsui will take the lead in implementing a new general education program passed by the SMU faculty March 19.
As dean of Dedman College, Tsutsui will head the largest of SMU’s seven colleges and schools, with its more than 250 full-time faculty members, including 23 endowed professorships. About 40 percent of SMU’s undergraduates pursue their majors in Dedman College through more than 50 baccalaureate degree programs and their minors in more than 50 areas. Eighteen graduate programs in Dedman College lead to a master’s degree and 12 programs lead to a doctor of philosophy degree.
The College was named in 1981 for the late Robert H. Dedman Sr. (’53) and his wife, Nancy McMillan Dedman (’50.)
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