Blumstein, Sheila (b. 1942)
Role: Interim President, Dean of the CollegeDates: 2000 - 2001, 1987 - 1995
Portrait Location: Sayles Hall 108
Artist: Drury, Fritz ()
Portrait Date: 2001
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Framed Dimensions:
Brown Portrait Number: 278
Brown Historical Property Number: 2487
Blumstein, a 1965 graduate of the University of Rochester (Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Sigma Iota,( magna cum laude ), earned her Ph.D. in linguistics at Harvard in 1970. She came to Brown in 1970 as assistant professor of linguistics, was promoted to associate professor in 1976, and became a full professor in 1981. Blumstein served as chairman of the Department of Linguistics from 1978 to 1981 and as chairman of the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences from 1986 to 1987, when she was named dean of the College. In 1991 she was named the Albert D. Mead Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences. Although Blumstein announced her retirement as dean effective July 1994, she continued to serve in that capacity until a successor was named in May 1995. Her gift as an academic administrator, however, could not so easily be forgotten, and late in 1997, Blumstein was asked to serve as interim provost, which she did for a year. Then two years later, when the university found itself in need of strong and steady guidance following the departure of Brown's Seventeenth President E. Gordon Gee, Blumstein answered the call to serve as interim president. With the arrival of President Ruth J. Simmons, Blumstein returned to her passion of researching language.
It's exciting. I want to understand the nature of human language, the process we use to speak and understand and the neural basis of such processing. Language is one of the markers of our humanity. It turns me on. I've been blessed with an interest in and curiosity about something that I've been allowed to spend my life looking at.
Blumstein's research has distinguished her as an internationally recognized scholar. Shortly after being named interim president, the Brown faculty presented Blumstein with the its highest academic honor, the Susan Colver Rosenberg Medal as well as an honorary Doctor of Science degree.
Blumstein selected Fritz Drury, chairman of the Illustration Department at the Rhode Island School of Design, to paint her portrait, which he did during numerous sittings throughout the winter of 2000-2001 on the third floor of the President's House on Power Street. Blumstein recalls her difficulty in sitting still for such a lengthy project, made bearable only by long, involved conversations with the artist. Blumstein's portrait makes a fitting contribution to the diversity of faces greeting visitors to Sayles Hall?fitting in that Blumstein herself has been a strong supporter of diversifying the Brown campus. "Brown should be a place that supports, encourages, and enhances diversity of experience in every possible way," she has said. Blumstein actively sought not only diverse student and faculty bodies, but also a rich curriculum and a broad range of campus experiences for all members of the Brown community.