Archon Fung Appointed Harvard Kennedy School Acting Dean

President Drew Faust today e-mailed an announcement that Archon Fung, Ford Foundation professor of democracy and citizenship and academic dean of the Harvard Kennedy School [4], would serve as acting dean beginning July 1. David T. Ellwood, who had been dean since mid 2004, announced last autumn that he would step down [5] at the end of this academic year, June 30. Ellwood has been the University’s longest-serving dean, making this transition an important one for the school. The appointment of an acting dean, rather than a permanent successor, after a search process begun early in the academic year, perhaps comes as a bit of a surprise—but decanal searches proceed on their own schedule.

Faust's message noted that Fung, who was an MIT undergraduate (in physics and philosophy) and doctoral student (in political science), joined the Kennedy School's faculty in 1999 and became a full professor in 2007. She wrote:

Archon has done an outstanding job as the school’s academic dean this past academic year. He is widely admired across the school, the University, and beyond—not only for his scholarship and teaching, but also for his deep commitment to the Kennedy School’s mission, his wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, and the engagingly collaborative and collegial approach he brings to all he does. I am very grateful to him for agreeing to assume this interim role as the search for the next dean of the Harvard Kennedy School progresses.

Updated: Read the Kennedy School announcement [6] here.