Following a national search, Caleb Everett, professor of anthropology and psychology and a senior associate dean at the University of Miami, has been named the next dean of the University of Delaware College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), UD President Dennis Assanis and Provost Laura Carlson announced today. His appointment will be effective March 1, 2025. 

“Dr. Everett’s strategic vision and commitment to student success, coupled with his passion for liberal arts education, is truly energizing and refreshing,” Assanis said. “His forward-looking ideas and his intellectual power to grasp the multitude of disciplines in arts and sciences are impressive. We all look forward to working closely with Caleb to drive our College of Arts and Sciences to new heights of excellence.” 

Reporting directly to Carlson, Everett will be a key member of the University’s senior administrative team, responsible for leadership of CAS and advancing campus development. 

“Dr. Everett brings to the College of Arts and Sciences a strong academic record that showcases experience across disciplines, and a leadership portfolio organized around faculty and student success,” Carlson said. “He has the strategic insight and the analytical and relational skills to further the college’s recognition and impact.” 

Assanis and Carlson expressed gratitude to the co-chairs of the search advisory committee — Wendy Bellion, associate dean for the humanities in CAS and the Sewell C.  Biggs Chair in American Art History, and Louis Rossi, dean of the Graduate College and vice provost for graduate and professional education — as well as to the committee members for their commitment and insights. 

Everett said he is honored to have this opportunity to serve the University as the new CAS dean. 

“UD has long been on an upward trajectory in its academic programs, research enterprise and community service, and I am excited to be part of this impressive growth and development,” he said. “CAS plays an essential role in educating every student at UD, and its faculty are innovative researchers and scholars representing an impressive range of disciplines. Their work enriches the lives of UD’s students and of many people outside the academy. I am eager to begin working with President Assanis, Provost Carlson and all of the CAS faculty and staff to continue building on the great momentum they have created.” 

Assanis and Carlson also thanked Debra Hess Norris, who has served as interim dean of the college since August 2023. Norris, who is the chair of the college's Department of Art Conservation, will continue to serve as interim dean until Everett’s arrival. 

About Caleb Everett 

Everett joined the University of Miami in 2007, and he is currently senior associate dean for faculty affairs and college diversity. He previously served as senior associate dean for academic affairs. He served as chair of the anthropology department from 2017 to 2021. 

At the University of Miami, he served on several administrative committees on academic personnel, research, accreditation, student recruitment and curriculum, as well as several search committees for new faculty members. 

Everett earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in linguistics from Rice University, as well as a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a post-doctoral researcher in linguistics at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo, and he was a faculty member for the Semester at Sea in 2015. 

His research explores linguistic, cognitive and cultural diversity. It relies on varied methods, including field work in such places as Amazonian Brazil, computational analyses of data from many distinct populations, and experimental tests of the aerosol particles people produce while speaking. 

Everett is the author of three books on linguistics. Two of them — A Myriad of Tongues: How Languages Reveal Differences in How We Think in 2023 and Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures in 2017 — won PROSE (Professional and Scholarly Excellence) Awards from the Association of American Publishers. A Myriad of Tongues was selected as one of the top 10 science books of fall 2023 by Publishers Weekly, and Numbers and the Making of Us was named one of the 10 best science books of the year by Smithsonian. 

As a recipient of an inaugural Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2015-17, Everett conducted research on the ways in which linguistic differences can influence aspects of nonlinguistic thought. This research focused on many cultures and languages worldwide. 

His research has been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Science, Nature, Scientific American, National Geographic, PBS, the BBC and many other top media outlets around the world. 

About the College of Arts and Sciences 

The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at the University of Delaware is nationally recognized for its exceptional educational experiences and for integrating instruction, research and public engagement. With 24 academic departments in the arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences; more than 25 centers, programs and institutes; and featuring outstanding research and teaching facilities, CAS serves over 7,500 students, supported by more than 400 staff and 600 faculty members. The College’s faculty members emphasize the enduring value of an arts and sciences education and a deep commitment to excellence in scholarship and all forms of creative and intellectual expression.