6/21/01

Janet L. McCoy

AU LIBERAL ARTS NAMES DEPARTMENT HEADS IN ENGLISH, ART

AUBURN -- Rebehak Pindzola has been appointed interim dean of the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts, replacing John Heilman who was named senior assistant to Interim President William F. Walker.

Pindzola, who was elevated from acting dean, has appointed two new department heads in the college.

Joseph Ansell, whose background is in the history of graphic design and illustration and art making, will be the new head of the Department of Art, while George Crandell, a faculty member at AU since 1988, was named head of the Department of English.

The appointments of Ansell and Crandell are effective Aug. 16. Ansell will take over for Nancy Hartsfield, who was interim head of art. Crandell fills the slot held by Dennis Rygiel, who retired.

"I am pleased to have Professor Ansell join the College of Liberal Arts and look forward to his administration with the very fine programs we have in our Department of Art," Pindzola said. "I am sure Joseph will bring his administrative experience and artistic vision to the department to help the faculty, staff and students progress toward their goals in a cooperative manner."

Ansell, former dean of faculty and instructional programs at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, has published and lectured in several areas related to the history of graphic design and illustration as well as art making.

He is completing a book on the connections between art and politics in the work of the Polish-Jewish illustrator Arthur Szyk, the leading political illustrator in the United States during World War II.

In addition, Ansell consults with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and is preparing for a forthcoming exhibition of Szyk's wartime work.

Ansell, who earned a MFA degree from George Washington University, has previously taught at Otterbein College and the University of Maryland.

Crandell, who specialized in 20th century American literature, bibliography and textual criticism, has been assistant department head in English since 1997.

"As dean, I am most pleased to have George assuming ths role, bringing his vast experience of the department and of the campus to the administration of this large and complex department, " Pindzola said."His experience and background will serve the department and college well."

Crandell earned the M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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