AUSTIN, Texas — Maurie McInnis has been appointed executive vice president and provost of The University of Texas at Austin. She is currently vice provost for academic affairs and a professor of art history at the University of Virginia (UVA).
President Gregory L. Fenves announced the appointment in a letter to faculty members, students and staffers.
The provost oversees academics on campus. McInnis will begin her term July 1. Until then, she will serve as provost-designate, making regular visits to the UT Austin campus.
“Dr. McInnis was clearly the top candidate to emerge from an extensive national search, and I am excited to have her join the university’s leadership,” Fenves said. “Serving as the chief academic officer for the university, Dr. McInnis will bring broad experience in academic leadership from one of the best public research universities in the nation. She will help The University of Texas at Austin reach our goals of creating more opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration among our colleges and schools and transforming our degree programs.”
McInnis, 50, received a bachelor’s degree in art history from UVA and a master’s degree and Ph.D., also in art history, from Yale University. She is a renowned scholar in the cultural history of American art in the colonial and antebellum South.
“UT Austin is among the world’s premier public research universities, and I am honored and excited to work with President Fenves and the university leadership. I was attracted to the university because of its commitment to excellence in research, scholarship and teaching and because of the dedication of its world-class faculty, staff and students,” McInnnis said. “I look forward to listening, to learning, and to working with my colleagues to build on our many strengths as we work together in support of President Fenves’ vision for an ever bigger and brighter future for the University of Texas.”
As vice provost since 2013, McInnis has strengthened academic connections between UVA’s colleges and helped develop innovative educational programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Prior to serving as vice provost, she served as associate dean for undergraduate academic programs in the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
She also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in art history and American studies including a multidisciplinary lecture on the history and culture of the slave South. Her scholarship focuses on the relationship between politics and art in early America. Her most recent book, “Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade,” was awarded the Charles C. Eldredge Book Prize from the Smithsonian American Art Museum as well as the Library of Virginia Literary Award for nonfiction. Her scholarship has been long engaged with public history, and she has worked regularly with museums and historic sites.
In addition to her role as provost at UT Austin, McInnis will receive a faculty appointment in the Department of American Studies in the College of Liberal Arts.
Fenves appointed McInnis in consultation with a campus committee that was chaired by Laura Starks, interim dean of the McCombs School of Business.
McInnis will replace interim provost Judith Langlois. Langlois has served in that role since the spring of 2015, when Fenves resigned as provost to become president of the university.
“I am grateful that Dr. Judy Langlois has stepped up repeatedly to fill leadership roles during transitions at UT and will serve a year as interim provost. She has been a very effective provost, accomplishing a great deal while continuing her research in psychology,” Fenves said.
