Professor Paul Connolly FAcSS will join Lancaster on 1^st January 2020 as the new Dean of FASS.

Professor Connolly joins Lancaster from Queen’s University Belfast, where he is currently Dean of Research for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. He has previously held the positions of Head of the School of Education and Interim Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise.

Speaking about his new role, Professor Connolly said: “I am delighted to be joining Lancaster University as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Lancaster is an outstanding university with an excellent international reputation. The Faculty is equally impressive in terms of its national and international rankings. What particularly attracted me to this post is the diverse nature of the Faculty and its demonstrable commitment to interdisciplinarity, internationalisation and engagement with a wide range of external partners in teaching and research. I very much look forward to working with colleagues to build upon these great strengths over the coming years.”

Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark E. Smith said: “It is great that we have attracted somebody of Professor Connolly’s stature and experience who will join Lancaster in January as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. With such an internationally excellent Faculty we attracted a hugely impressive range of candidates and Paul emerged as the preferred Dean. He brings significant experience and a real enthusiasm for leading FASS. Paul is highly respected in his field, has operated at the very highest level within a research-intensive university and has chaired an impressive range of external committees.”

Professor Connolly is a Professor of Education, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and has an international reputation for his research on diversity and inclusion in early childhood. He has a prolific research profile, having attracted over £18.5M in external research income during his career to date. He was a member of the 2014 REF Sub-Panel for Education and has been a member of the ESRC Grants Assessment Panel for a number of years.

He currently leads a £2M NIHR-funded global health network, working in strategic partnership with UNICEF. The network supports local organisations and communities in nine low- and middle-income countries impacted by conflict to develop early childhood interventions aimed at not only contributing to sustainable development, but also peacebuilding.