This July, Bryant welcomed Denise Horn, Ph.D., to its ranks as associate dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). Horn, who has authored two books and numerous journal articles, is an international relations scholar whose work explores the relationship of civil society development to democratic growth — focusing on women’s transnational activism and trends in global development strategies. Born in Japan to a military family, Horn moved to the U.S. at four years old and has lived in numerous states ever since. Spending the last two and a half years as campus dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Wenzhou-Kean University in Wenzhou, China, Horn sat down with Bryant News to share more about her background and ideas for the Bulldog community:

What inspired you to pursue a career in academia, particularly in international relations?

Two things inspired me to pursue international relations: I took my first international relations class in college and was completely blown away by all the things I didn't know about the world. Additionally, because my father was in the military, our lives were directly affected by foreign policy, so I wanted to understand that and how foreign policy was made.

I studied international relations as an undergrad, all through graduate school, and then began teaching it. My dissertation looked at women's non-governmental organizations and how they were impacted by U.S. foreign policy abroad. I then started studying social entrepreneurship to help students understand the impact they can make on the world.

As someone with an extensive background in research, can you share some of the topics you’ve focused on?

So, I center myself in the field of Feminist International Relations. I started looking at family planning when I was in graduate school by questioning some of the foreign policies that the U.S. implemented as a way of controlling population in developing countries. The idea of how women's bodies are controlled, not just in the home or domestically, but through international forces was the larger question I was interested in.

My original work was in Eastern Europe, but my interest shifted toward Southeast Asia and the long-term effects of Cold War policies on women's lives in that region as a natural progression of the programs I was running with students. Additionally, when I was a visiting associate professor at Osaka University in 2018, I worked with faculty on family planning in Japan, which involved comparing Japanese and U.S. policies.

Another project I'm looking at is continuums of violence and how violence is perpetuated through different levels of our lives, whether personally or internationally. I co-authored a piece with a colleague on that a few years ago and want to pick that back up.

Bryant’s focus on social impact and the fact that its general education program — which is housed in CAS under the leadership of Dean Veronica McComb, Ph.D., — is based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals attracted you to the associate dean role. Can you explain why the social impact framework is important for students?

Social impact informs policy making, and it's important for students to understand that they can have a real effect on what happens in the world. Education around social impact can manifest itself in students' later careers.

For many years, I ran programs around community development and social entrepreneurship in a variety of countries, including South Africa, Thailand, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and India. I would take students to a country, and they would work collaboratively with local students on assessing community needs and developing impactful community projects. Students who did those programs would go on to have careers that focused on social impact — such as working for the United Nations or environmental organizations.

What is your vision for the CAS associate dean role, and what are you most looking forward to as you begin this new position?

My main role is around curriculum and assessment, which involves looking at our strengths in what we do while finding ways to improve and expand our ideas around social impact and how that fits in with the curriculum; I'm hoping to bring a lot of my global perspective to that. I'd like to see an expansion of CAS global impact. I think that can be done by strengthening the ties between CAS and the College of Business and showing how these two can work together to improve student experience, while having great outcomes among students.

I'm also really looking forward to meeting students, building up women's leadership, and building a global perspective for the university and students. This is a really interesting time for Bryant — there are a lot of new faces and fresh perspectives coming in.