Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol—a leader of the attacks on University President Lawrence H. Summers’ leadership earlier this semester—will be the next dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS), Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby announced today.

Skocpol will replace outgoing dean Peter T. Ellison, who has led GSAS for the past five years, when he steps down on July 1. Skocpol becomes only the second woman to lead the graduate school.

She said she was offered the position at a lunch meeting with Kirby on Tuesday.

The Dean of the Faculty has sole power in appointing the GSAS dean, though he first vets potential candidates with faculty members—and especially with the Faculty Council, the 18-member governing body of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

Sociology Department Chair Mary C. Waters, a long-time friend of Skocpol, praised Kirby’s decision to appoint Skocpol.

“I see it as a brilliant move by Dean Kirby to have a very, very capable and talented person be in charge of the graduate school,” she said.

Waters said the prospect of having a female dean—particularly in light of faculty disappointment with the declining numbers of tenure offers made to women since Summers became president in 2001—might have been part of the motivation for appointing Skocpol.

“It’s possible,” she said. “There’s been a lot of pressure to begin having some more women deans around here, so I’m sure that was one thing considered” in choosing Skocpol.

“I’m sure [being a woman] didn’t hurt,” Skocpol added.

But Skocpol, herself a GSAS graduate, also brings to the job a lot of experience with the graduate school.

She has served as director of graduate studies for the sociology department, and she currently chairs GSAS’s Committee on Research Workshops.

According to Waters, the workshops committee, launched by Skocpol in 1994, provides funds for graduate students or faculty to hold workshops where they present their works-in-progress.

“I am delighted that Theda has agreed to lead the Graduate School at a moment of great strength and challenge,” Kirby said in a press release. “She is a national leader in multiple fields of study, a devoted mentor of graduate students, and a dedicated citizen of this Faculty.”

As GSAS dean, Skocpol, a long-time critic of various administrators, will become an administrator herself.

Earlier this semester, Skocpol was one of the professors who led the first round of attacks against Summers.