R. Danielle Egan has been named the twelfth president of Bennington College in Vermont. Her appointment is effective in August.
Bennington College was originally founded in 1932 as a women’s college and became co-educational in 1969. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s most recent data, women now represent about three-quarters of the college’s 800 undergraduate students. Bennington also enrolls around 100 graduate students.
Dr. Egan comes to her presidency from Connecticut College, where she has been serving as the Fuller-Maathai Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies, dean of the faculty, and chief academic officer. As a scholar, she is widely recognized for her research on the social construction of sexuality, the cultural politics of gender, and the historical and institutional forces that shape norms of social and sexual acceptability. Dr Egan has written three books, including her most recent monograph Becoming Sexual: A Critical Appraisal of Girls and Sexualization (Polity, 2013).
“For nearly a century, Bennington College has distinguished itself with an academic mission centered on creativity, interdisciplinarity, and self-direction. I find deep resonance with this mission, as it speaks to my life as a scholar, academic leader, psychoanalyst, and artist,” said Dr. Egan. “Examining the various challenges our world is facing, I believe a Bennington education is needed now more than ever. I will work tirelessly to carry Bennington’s mission forward and to ensure its flourishing now and long into the future. My first task will be to listen to students, faculty, staff, and alumni to build a shared vision of the future for the college. I am deeply honored to join this community, and I am excited for what we will create together.”
A graduate of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Egan holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Boston College and both a master’s degree and doctorate in clinical psychoanalysis from the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis.