Ann Marie Leshkowich Appointed Interim Provost

President Vincent Rougeau announced this week that Ann Marie Leshkowich, the College's dean of faculty and a professor of anthropology, will assume the role of interim provost, effective July 1. Leshkowich will fill this position as the College conducts a formal search to replace outgoing provost Margaret Freije.

"Ann Marie is adept and highly respected as both an administrator and educator," said Rougeau in a message to the College community. "We are both fortunate and delighted that [she] will assume this role at an important time in our institution's history." 

Leshkowich joined the Holy Cross department of sociology and anthropology in 2000, earned tenure in 2007, and was promoted to the rank of professor in 2014. She is a well published sociocultural anthropologist whose work focuses on gender, class, economic transformation, fashion, kinship, socialism and neoliberalism. She has been conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Vietnam for more than 25 years. Her 2014 book, "Essential Trade: Vietnamese Women in a Changing Marketplace," was awarded the 2016 Harry J. Benda Prize by the Association for Asian Studies. She received the Mary Louise Marfuggi Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship in 2015 and the O'Leary Faculty Recognition Award in 2009-2011.

Since becoming dean of the faculty in 2019, Leshkowich has collaborated with faculty committees to develop guidelines for online teaching and policies on child bonding leave and criteria for the formation of new departments. In addition to regularly teaching "Contemporary Asia" at the introductory level and "Ethnographic Field Methods" at the advanced level, she offers elective courses such as "Fashion and Consumption" and "Economic Anthropology." She has served as an advisor for department and College honors theses, capstone projects in Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, the Weiss summer research program, and the Fenwick Scholar.  

Leshkowich has been an active member of the Gender, Sexualities and Women studies concentration, previously served as director of Asian studies and as chair of the department of sociology and anthropology, and has served on numerous College committees.