Dr. Susan Larson, provost and dean of the college, has announced that Dr. Sonja Wentling, professor of history and director of the global studies program, has been appointed to serve as the next dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Concordia. Wentling will begin her three-year term July 11. Dr. George Connell, the current dean, is leaving his position to return to the faculty.
“Wentling will bring energy, optimism, and a commitment to relationship-building,” Larson said. “Her passion for the liberal arts and sciences and interdisciplinary education and her commitment to advancing liberal learning at Concordia College in alignment with our strategic commitment to learn-work-lead made her a compelling choice for this role.”
Larson says Wentling is a student-centered teacher-scholar with significant experiences in shared governance, having served on budget planning, curriculum, core, and professional growth committees in addition to Faculty Senate.
“This has prepared her to be an advocate for her departments and programs, and also prepared her with an understanding of the myriad of challenges facing higher education,” Larson said. “Her involvement has honed her leadership skills and she is committed to supporting interfaith initiatives and has experience working with Concordia Language Villages.”
Wentling wrote in her application that emerging from a pandemic has not only magnified the challenges of higher education but also afforded the opportunity for renewal.
“The dean is called to infuse the School of Arts and Sciences with a spirit of optimism and support its faculty in new initiatives that will attract more students, create more opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, and help preserve the financial health and integrity of its programming,” Wentling said.
Wentling looks forward to identifying the strengths, opportunities, and aspirations of the school and help facilitate conversations and assessment activities among departments and interdisciplinary programs.
“I would like to express my gratitude for having been given the opportunity to serve Concordia in this new position and I am excited to join the leadership team of the college. I am deeply committed to the liberal arts, especially in times of crises, when a values-centered education alone prepares students for courageous citizenship,” Wentling said. “The War against Ukraine with all its geopolitical implications has shaken the pillars of the post-World War II order and its core principles of stability, cooperation, peace, and security. Additionally, the urgency to address global challenges of climate change, public health, and social justice further highlight the need for a transformative liberal arts education committed to interdisciplinarity and collaboration.”
As a native Austrian, who grew up in a post-World War II Europe of stability and security and who vividly remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain that cut the continent in half for decades, Wentling is deeply concerned about the war in Ukraine and its implications for Europe.
“My own story that brought me to the United States is inextricably intertwined with the end of the Cold War,” she said. “It was on my first trip to Hungary that I would meet an American historian, who wanted to diversify his graduate school by bringing an adventurous Austrian to Southern Illinois University. Little did he know that this fateful invitation would be the start of an academic career in the United States and ultimately lead to a calling to teach at a liberal arts college with a mission to educate global citizens.”
Wentling earned a master’s degree in European history and German from the University of Vienna, Austria, a master’s degree in American history from Southern Illinois University, and a doctorate in American foreign relations from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. She came to Concordia in 2003.