Dwight A. McBride, the chairman of African-American studies at Northwestern University, has been named the dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Arts and Sciences, according to a UIC press release.
McBride, who will be Christopher Comer's successor, was at UIC during the years 1999-2002. He started as an assistant English and African-American studies professor and became a associate professor in 2001. In 2002, he accepted his current Northwestern post.
A writer who has been consistently honored for his work, McBride's 'Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch: Essays on Race and Sexuality,' a collection of cultural criticism, was nominated for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award and the 2006 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. Another work of his is the award-winning '100 Years of the 'Souls of Black Folk': A Celebration of W.E.B. DuBois.'
With more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, Liberal Arts and Sciences is UIC's largest college. It comprises 21 departments and programs and offering more than 60 undergraduate majors and 40 minors.
If the university's board of trustees approves McBride for the position, he will assume the seat on Aug. 16.