Arnab Banerji, associate professor of theatre history and dramatic literature, on May 15, 2022, will assume the role of director of the University Core Curriculum. Professor Banerji has been serving as co-chair of the University Core Curriculum Committee, where he has collaboratively led the Core Curriculum’s ongoing review, as well as streamlined the work of the overall committee’s structure and processes.
Professor Banerji earned his Ph.D. in theatre and performance studies from the University of Georgia. He is the author of “Contemporary Group Theatre from Kolkata, India” (Routledge 2020). Professor Banerji’s essays and reviews have been published in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Asian Theatre Journal, TDR, BOOM California, Ecumenica, Theatre Symposium, Sanglap, Cerebration, SERAS, and Virginia Review of Asian Studies. His current research is in performances by the Indian diaspora, translations of Indian vernacular plays, and contemporary Bengali theatre. Since his arrival at LMU in 2015, he has been teaching courses in his expertise, mainly in the Core, such as First Year Seminar, Historical Analysis and Experience, Studies in American Diversity, Interdisciplinary Connections, and Faith and Reason.
Professor Banerji brings a wealth of diversity, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility (DEIA) knowledge to his role as director. As his courses and publications demonstrate, DEIA functions as the centerpiece of his teaching and scholarship. Most recently, he championed the Story Circle series alongside Professor Ariane White, director of intercultural affairs, as the Center for Teaching Excellence’s DEIA Faculty Fellow. These workshops provide a lightly facilitated dialogue process that uses the Rx Racial Healing methodology, the signature practice of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) national network, of which LMU is now a part.
Professor Banerji has been chair of the Faculty Library Committee, a member of the Committee on the Excellence of Teaching, as well as departmental representative to the College of Communication and Fine Arts’ Faculty Affairs. Professor Banerji is a prime example of LMU’s teacher-scholar model.
We also must say good-bye and thank you to Anthony Perron, associate professor of history, for his service as director. Professor Perron’s dedicated service to and adept administration of the University Core Curriculum are highly valued. During his tenure as director, he expertly managed both the Rhetorical Arts (RHET) and First Year Seminar (FYS) programs, particularly the move from a system of FYS part-time writing instruction to one in which writing instructors are hired as full-time academic staff. He also supported the handover of the RHET instructors program to BCLA and the English Department for mentoring, support, and evaluation purposes. He worked closely on the University Core Curriculum Committee’s proposal to remove flag requirements from the Core, providing leadership in helping colleagues and schools take on the task of implementing the skills of writing, oral communication, information literacy, and quantitative reasoning in their own departmental programs. Furthermore, he has worked on rehauling policies governing transfer articulations with the Core to make them more transparent, consistent, and accommodating to transfer students without sacrificing the rigor and distinctiveness of LMU’s Core. Professor Perron offered Core advising workshops that benefited faculty teaching and sat on several standing committees, working groups, and task forces. His service as Core Director has been a model of dedication, efficiency, and collaboration.
