Minerva Schools at KGI Names Dr. Daniel J. Levitin as Dean of Arts & Humanities

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Minerva Schools at KGI, offering a reinvented university experience for the brightest and most motivated students from around the world, today announced that Dr. Daniel J. Levitin has been appointed Dean of the College of Arts & Humanities. Levitin is an award-winning teacher, researcher, writer, and musician. He joins Minerva from McGill University where he is the James McGill Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Director of the Laboratory for Music Cognition, Perception, and Expertise.

"Dan is the ideal person to rethink the humanities from a broad, interdisciplinary point of view, and we are thrilled to have him join the Minerva team," said Stephen Kosslyn, founding dean, Minerva. "Dan brings to Minerva a distinguished scholarly career and unequaled set of competencies that span numerous fields. He is uniquely qualified to reimagine a humanities education for the 21^st century."

Levitin is deeply committed to interdisciplinary education emphasizing the intersection between science, art and humanities. His first book, "This is Your Brain on Music," sold one million copies, and its follow up, "The World in Six Songs," debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. Levitin regularly contributes his ideas about music and science to readers of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and other publications.

Levitin completed his post-doctoral training at Stanford University Medical School and UC Berkeley, earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from University of Oregon, and his B.A. from Stanford in Cognitive Psychology. He has been a visiting professor at Stanford University, UC Berkeley and Dartmouth. In 2006 he received the Principal's Teaching Prize at McGill, the University's highest teaching honor.

"It's exciting to be part of Minerva's team and its efforts to reinvent higher education from the ground up, including an integrated approach to humanities, arts, and sciences," said Dan Levitin. "The opportunity to rethink what an arts and humanities curriculum should be is very appealing to me."

Levitin will lead the College of Arts & Humanities, one of four Colleges in Minerva's School of Arts & Sciences. Levitin and the team of faculty he recruits will develop and teach the arts and humanities curriculum designing the full catalog of courses, beginning with Minerva's yearlong freshman cornerstone course in multimodal communications. The multimodal communications course is one of four immersive, cross-disciplinary courses that will serve as the foundation of the Minerva's scaffolding curriculum.  Case studies and content from Levitin's cornerstone course will be coordinated with the cornerstone courses in theoretical analysis, empirical analysis and complex systems analysis to make up the full freshman year curriculum.

About Minerva Schools at KGI

The Minerva Schools at KGI* offers a reinvented university experience for the brightest, most motivated students from around the world. Combining a scaffolded interdisciplinary curriculum and rigorous academic standards, an accomplished faculty versed in the science of learning, an advanced interactive learning platform leveraging cutting-edge technology, and four years of immersive global experience, Minerva will deliver an exceptional liberal arts and sciences education for future leaders and innovators in every discipline. The Minerva Schools at KGI is a partnership between Keck Graduate Institute and Minerva Project. The first class will matriculate in Fall 2015. For more information please visit: http://minerva.kgi.edu                                                           

*pending WASC approval

SOURCE Minerva Schools at KGI

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