September 4, 1996 Contact: Barbara McKenna (408) 459-2495; mckenna@ua.ucsc.edu

UC SANTA CRUZ ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENTS OF NEW PROVOSTS FOR OAKES AND KRESGE COLLEGES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--The University of California, Santa Cruz, announces the appointments of new provosts at two of the campus's eight colleges. David Henry Anthony, III, associate professor of history, has been named provost of Oakes College and Paul Skenazy, professor of literature, has been named provost of Kresge College. The appointments were announced by Executive Vice Chancellor Michael Tanner.

Anthony was previously provost on an interim basis, replacing associate professor of education Maria Eugenia Matute-Bianchi this past January.

"I am very pleased to have this opportunity to play a role in shaping the future of Oakes College--a place that has welcomed and supported me since my arrival at UCSC," Anthony said. "I want to make a constructive contribution to the life of Oakes and the other UCSC colleges and look forward to working with my colleagues and students to creating a diverse and vibrant community."

Anthony came to UCSC in 1988, following a year in Lesotho as a Fulbright lecturer at the National University of Lesotho. He earned his masters and doctorate degrees in history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his bachelors degree in history and English from New York University.

Anthony specializes in the history of Eastern and Southern Africa and 19th and 20th century African American history. He is currently writing a book on African American activist Max Yergan, a missionary in South Africa from 1921-36. Anthony has also written on African and African American history for journals, newspapers, and numerous anthologies.

Skenazy replaces associate professor of anthropology Carolyn Martin Shaw.

"As provost," Skenazy said, "I would like to be an advocate for UCSC's undergraduates. Kresge has established a strong program stressing issues of race, class, and gender and I want to strengthen that focus and work to ensure a rich intellectual life in the college. To me the colleges are the backbone and nerve center of the campus for undergraduates. With all the competing voices asking to be heard around a university, the colleges should be places able to address student needs and help students focus their academic lives"

Skenazy came to UCSC in 1971 from Stanford University. He earned his bachelor's degree in literature from the University of Chicago and his master's and doctorate degrees in literature from Stanford University.

A former co-chair of UCSC's writing program, Skenazy's field of interest is contemporary American literature, especially popular mystery fiction. He is the author of The New Wild West: The Urban Mysteries of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler (1982), a part of the Boise State University Western Writers Series, and James M. Cain (1989), a critical study of Cain's detective novels. Along with David Fine, Skenazy edited San Francisco and Fiction, a collection of critical essays on fiction by San Francisco area authors from the Gold Rush to the present. Skenazy's latest project, Lamollie and the King of Tears, has just been published. The book was written by Skenazy's friend, author Arturo Islas, who died of AIDS before the book was completed. Skenazy edited and did final writing on the book.

A finalist in the 1984 and 1988 National Book Critics Circle Reviewer's Citation, Skenazy is also a respected book critic. He has been a mystery columnist for the Washington Post for the past three years and is a regular book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. His reviews have also appeared regularly in the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Chicago Tribune.

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