{shortcode-8c1ed243f50737a16aae710a829030a211104a35}

Three pairs of finalists have been selected in the ongoing search for Currier House’s next faculty deans, which kicked off in September.

Graduate Commons Program faculty directors Nancy E. Hill and Rendall Howard; Slavic languages professor Justin Weir and his wife Joy; and Women and Gender Studies chair Jocelyn Viterna and her partner Camilo Melara, are all being considered for the position, according to students familiar with the matter. Each couple joined current Currier students for dinner at one of three finalist events held over the past month.

The selected pair will replace outgoing Currier faculty deans Sylvia I. Barrett and Latanya A. Sweeney. The two will step down at the end of the academic year after holding the position for 10 years — the maximum time someone can serve in the role. Barrett and Sweeney announced their departure on Sept. 2, and the next day, College Dean David J. Deming emailed Currier residents asking for names of possible candidates.

Faculty deans at the College oversee one of the 12 undergraduate Houses, managing their roughly 400 undergraduates along with residential staff. The pair of deans — at least one of which is a Harvard affiliate — live in their House, help coordinate events, and integrate themselves into student life.

Deming announced in September that his office would be a partner in the search process. Currier Resident Dean Amanda S. Lobell ’99 announced the formation of a Faculty Dean Search Advisory Committee in September, soliciting student applications to join. Once three finalist pairs were selected, administrators scheduled dinners in the Currier dining hall.

Hill and Howard’s dinner was on Nov. 13, the Weirs met with students on Nov. 17, and Viterna and Melara had their meal with residents on Thursday. The pairs met with Currier students in the House’s dining hall in the Radcliffe Quad.

Hill and Howard have served as the faculty directors of the GCP, which leads events for graduate students, faculty, post-docs, and staff who live in Harvard housing, since 2016. Hill is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who researches parenting and child development.

Weir is a professor in the Slavic Languages and Literatures and Comparative Literature departments and is also a faculty affiliate of the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies.

Viterna is chair of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality standing committee and is a professor in the Sociology department. Viterna is on leave for the current academic year and is currently developing four research projects, including two focused on women’s sexual and reproductive rights and health care in El Salvador. Malera is a lawyer and a Salvatorian social and environmental activist who ran for mayor of San Salvador Sur in 2024.

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Julia A. Karabolli can be reached at julia.karabolli@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Claire L. Simon can be reached at claire.simon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @ClaireSimon.