SMU officials announced Friday that William Tsutsui will become the new dean of Dedman College on July 1.  
 

Tsutsu, an expert in business, environmental and cultural history of modern Japan, is currently a professor of history and the associate dean for international studies at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas.  
 

He is also the director of the Kansas Consortium for Teaching about Asia in KUs Center for Asian Studies, according to an SMU news press release.
 

“Dr. Tsutsui brings a breadth of experiences that align with the strategic goals of SMU and Dedman College,” Paul Ludden, SMU provost and vice president for academic affairs, wrote in an e-mail interview. “In particular, his experience as Associate Dean for International Programs at Kansas University aligns with SMU’s goal of broadening our opportunities for global experiences.”
 

Tsutsi said when he heard he was selected as dean he was honored and excited.  
 

“When I met the search committee and the people on campus I thought the fit between me and my skills and SMU and its strengths were very good,” he said. “I think what is particularly impressive about SMU is the high investment in undergraduate teaching combined with excellence in research and graduate instruction. I think the balance at SMU between teaching undergraduates and conducting world-class research is really admirable, and I think in the future, it’s going to be intuitions like SMU, urban research universities with a strong undergraduate focus that will be the leaders in American education.”
 

Tsutsui received a Ph.D. in history in 1995, and a Master of Arts in history in 1990 from Princeton University. He also received a Master of Letters in modern Japanese history from Oxford University in 1988 and graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies in 1985, according to his biography on the KU department of history Web site.

Ludden wrote that it was Tsutsui’s education and his reputation at KU that made Tsutsui the ideal candidate.

“His academic credentials at Harvard, Princeton and Oxford, in addition to his record at KU are well suited to SMU’s ambition for its place among leading universities,” he wrote.

William Lawrence, dean of the Perkins School of Theology, who was the chairman of the search committee, wrote in an e-mail interview that it was a combination of things that made Tsutsui stand out among the other four candidates.

“The committee was tremendously impressed with his energy, his knowledge of the University, his deep intellectual gifts, his gifts for visionary leadership, his capacity for understanding the different interests of the departments in Dedman College and his openness to work effectively with the faculty and staff as well as the students in the College,” Lawrence wrote.