Dr. Shannon Miller has accepted the position of dean of the College of Humanities and the Arts, effective December 1.

Shannon has provided dynamic interim leadership to the college since July 1, 2017. Among her accomplishments, she has expanded Hammer Theatre programming, further fostering our collaboration with the City of San Jose. She has overseen centers of excellence, bringing engaging speakers and artists to San Jose and enhancing our contribution to the local arts scene.

Shannon joined SJSU as a professor and chair in the Department of English and Comparative Literature in 2014. She previously served as professor and chair of the Department of English at Temple University for six years.  Since joining SJSU, she has instituted an innovative curriculum redesign in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. In addition, Shannon has supported the First-Year Writing program in implementing a Stretch English curriculum and a Directed Self-Placement process for all entering freshman that allowed us to eliminate no-credit remediation courses in English.

She received a bachelor’s in English magna cum laude from Dartmouth College, along with a master’s and a doctorate in literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a scholar of Renaissance literature and the author of two books, Invested with Meaning: The Raleigh Circle in the New World and Engendering the Fall: John Milton and Seventeenth-Century Women Writers.