Posted: Thursday, July 3, 2014

The University of Evansville is pleased to announce the appointment of Gerald “Jerry” Seaman, Ph.D., as the new principal of Harlaxton College, located in Grantham, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. He will assume this role on August 1, 2014.

From 2006 to the present, Seaman has been the vice president and dean of faculty and professor of romance and classical languages at Ripon College, a private liberal arts and sciences college in Ripon, Wisconsin. He has also served on the Board of Trustees at Ripon and is currently on the advisory board of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM). Seaman was the associate dean of faculty at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin from 2000-06. He has also published numerous articles, scholarly papers, and presented at numerous conferences.

Seaman was department chair of foreign languages at the University of Evansville from 1997-2000. During that time, he was a professor of French, and he taught at Harlaxton during the summers of 1998-2000.

In his new role as principal, Seaman will be the chief executive and academic officer of Harlaxton College and chief administrative officer of Harlaxton Manor, the nineteenth century Victorian manor where students live and study. Seaman will be responsible for developing and articulating the vision and mission of Harlaxton among its constituents, as well as providing leadership and operational direction for all aspects of the College and Manor.

Seaman earned his Ph.D. in medieval French literature in 1992 and his M.A. in French literature in 1990, both from Stanford University. He earned his B.A. in political science, international relations, and French from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1986. In addition to his time at Harlaxton, his international experience includes studying at Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, 1990-91 and at Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Aix-en-Provence, 1984-1985. He also participated in the Freeman Study Tour (Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Shanghai) in 2005, was an external reviewer for the ACM Costa Rica program in 2010, and has made multiple visits to Chile since 1997.

Says Seaman, “Harlaxton is a spectacular place where the education and experience are harmoniously integrated into a transformational experience for students. The setting, the faculty, and the staff together make Harlaxton unique and allow it to offer a best-in-class curriculum, co-curriculum, residential, and travel experience.  My goal is to sustain what is already very strong, build on that, and make it the most distinctive program of its kind for the University of Evansville and its partner colleges and universities.”

Seaman adds, “It will be important for me to relate well to, and engage frequently with everyone associated with Harlaxton – alumni, students, faculty, staff, administrators, donors and supporters, the partner colleges, and members of the local Harlaxton community.  I think that my prior experiences with UE, including teaching at Harlaxton, will be beneficial in those efforts, as they provide me with a set of connections, contacts, shared knowledge, and common experiences I can draw upon and develop.”

UE President Thomas A. Kazee says, “I am very excited that Dr. Seaman will be returning to the University of Evansville as principal of Harlaxton College. His wealth of professional experience, as well as his prior knowledge of UE and Harlaxton, made him an ideal person to fill this position. I join many others on both campuses, and in our communities, in welcoming him, his wife Patricia Vilches, and their sons Mario and Riccardo.”

Vilches, who has been an associate professor of Spanish and Italian at Lawrence University since 2000, has also devoted summers to teaching at Harlaxton College.

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