ATHENS, Ga. – Kavita Pandit, head of the department of
geography at the University of Georgia,
has been named associate dean in the university’s Franklin College of Arts and
Sciences pending approval of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
Pandit’s duties will include coordinating the Franklin
College’s international and summer programs
as well as serving as liaison for the departments comprising the social and
behavioral sciences within the college (anthropology, geography, psychology, and
sociology and speech communication).
Pandit’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of
migration and Third World development. Her current work examines immigrant
geographies in the United States
and the movement of highly skilled workers between the United
States and India. In 1987, Pandit came to UGA as associate
professor of geography and has served as department head for the past
two-and-a-half years.
“I am delighted that Dr. Pandit will join the Franklin
College as associate dean,” says
Dean Garnett S. Stokes. “Her many years
of research and teaching in these particular fields will serve the college and
its international and social and behavioral sciences programs well.”
Pandit has taught introductory courses in human geography,
upper division courses in population geography and the geography of
development, and graduate seminars on migration and restructuring and
population and development. She received
her bachelor’s degree from Bombay University
and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Ohio State
University.
“I have enormous respect for the work being done in the
social and behavioral sciences in the Franklin
College and look forward to working
with these departments,” says Pandit. “The
opportunity to work with Franklin’s
international programs is also very exciting because these programs are vital
to instilling a truly global perspective in our students.”
Pandit succeeds Clif Pannell, who retired as associate dean
on Dec. 1, 2005, after more
than 34 years at UGA. Pannell arrived at
the university in 1971 as associate professor of geography. He had been associate dean at the Franklin
College since January 1994.
The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA serves more
than 16,000 undergraduate and graduate students each year through the teaching
and research of more than 630 faculty members as well as through the resources
of 30 academic departments and more than 20 centers and programs. UGA students also are supported by the Franklin
College through its Office of
Academic Advising, where 30 advisors counsel thousands of undergraduates each
year on course selection and academic major declarations.
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