S. Abu Turab Rizvi, professor of economics and former dean of the Honors College, University of Vermont, has been named provost. He will arrive Jan. 20, 2015.
“Abu’s experience as leader of an honors college within a research university has given him a broad overview of curriculum and operations, as well as a deep appreciation of the residential liberal arts college mission,” says President Alison Byerly.
Under Rizvi’s leadership as dean, the Honors College doubled the size of its first-year class while sustaining academic standards and increasing the diversity of its student body and the proportion of students in the first generation of their families to go to college.
Rizvi designed interdisciplinary faculty development seminars; promoted student participation in collaborative research with faculty and success in national fellowships competitions; and led the implementation of an initiative to integrate academic advising, learning beyond the classroom, and career planning support for students.
He holds a Ph.D. in economics from New School for Social Research and a B.A. in economics from Vassar College.
His research concerns general equilibrium and game theories and their history, as well as the study of poverty, well-being, and preference. He is co-author, with David P. Levine, of Poverty, Work and Freedom: Political Economy and the Moral Order (Cambridge University Press, 2005).