Karen Hanson Named Chair of CIC

Karen Hanson, the University of Minnesota’s Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, has been named Chair of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation is an academic consortium of top-tier research universities, including the members of the Big Ten Conference and the University of Chicago.  For over half a century, CIC members have collaborated to advance their academic missions, generate unique opportunities for students and faculty, and serve the common good by sharing expertise, leveraging campus resources, and creating innovative programming.

Led by the provosts of member universities who serve as the board, the CIC is a collaborative hub that harnesses the collective power of its members.  As chair of the governing board of provosts, Provost Hanson provides direction, guidance, and leadership to the staff and board. She is the key liaison between the Presidents of the universities and the board, and serves to identify and press on areas for strategic action.

CIC Executive Director, Barbara McFadden Allen said, “Karen brings to her role both vision and experience to advance the mission of the CIC. She has many years of experience in CIC member universities as a faculty member and senior leader, and she has participated in a variety of CIC initiatives. Karen is a thoughtful and articulate leader in American higher education.”

"At a time when research universities need more than ever to work together to advance the missions of higher education, the CIC is uniquely positioned to help address our common concerns,” said Provost Hanson. “The CIC has a long history of successful collaborations.  I look forward to working even more closely with the CIC staff and the current and new members as we continue to build on that history." Karen Hanson is the University of Minnesota’s chief academic officer, with responsibility for managing the colleges and academic units, and the policies and practices that affect the academic life of the university.

Hanson received her bachelor of arts, summa cum laude, in philosophy and mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 1970. She went on to earn both her master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy from Harvard University in 1980.

Prior to returning to Minnesota, Hanson served as provost at the Bloomington campus of Indiana University and executive vice president of that university from July 2007 to January 2012.

Provost Hanson’s research interests are in the philosophy of mind, ethics and aesthetics, and American philosophy. She has published many articles and essays in these areas and is the author of the book The Self Imagined: Philosophical Reflections on the Social Character of Psyche and a co-editor of the book Romantic Revolutions: Criticism and Theory.

She has twice been elected to the executive committee of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association (APA) and to the APA National Board of Officers. She served as chair of the APA board from 2004 to 2005. From 1993 to 1997, she served as the APA delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and as a member of the ACLS Executive Committee.

Hanson has been an associate editor of the Journal of Social Philosophy, a member of the editorial board of American Philosophical Quarterly and a trustee for the American Society for Aesthetics. Her current editorial board memberships include Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews and Cognitio, and she is an officer of the board of the John Dewey Foundation and a member of the advisory board of the Peirce Edition Project.