Former UT professor returning as College of Arts and Letters dean

Charlene Gilbert has been at Ohio State in Lima since 2014

5/18/2017

Charlene Gilbert, a former University of Toledo professor and chair of its Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, will return to campus as dean of UT’s College of Arts and Letters.

“I am honored to have been selected as the next dean of the College of Arts and Letters,” she said in a statement. “This is an inspiring time for The University of Toledo, and it is clear to me that the College of Arts and Letters will be a critical part of the University's highest aspirations for the future.”

She will take the new position on July 10 and will make $225,000 a year.

Ms. Gilbert has served as dean and director of the Ohio State University at Lima since 2014, along with her duties as a professor in the Departments of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

“The University is excited to welcome Charlene Gilbert back to Toledo,” said Dr. Andrew Hsu, UT’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “Her excellent, diverse experience and enthusiasm for student and faculty success will be strong assets as dean of the College of Arts and Letters.”

Ms. Gilbert has a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Yale University and a master of fine arts in film and media arts from Temple University.

She was a documentary filmmaker and professor at American University in Washington, D.C., from 2001-07 in the School of Communication.

Her documentary films have been screened nationally on PBS and in film festivals across the country. Some of her best-known works include “Homecoming: Sometimes I Am Haunted by Memories of Red Dirt and Clay,” about African-American farmers and their struggle after the Civil War to own and farm land in the rural South, and “Children Will Listen,” which is about elementary school children planning and performing a junior production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Once Gilbert’s appointment begins at UT, Jamie Barlowe, the college’s current dean, will join the Provost’s Office full-time as interim vice provost for faculty affairs.