Flaten named associate dean of CCU's College of Humanities
His duties will include serving as liaison with the Board of Visitors, Student Advisory Council and the CCU Alumni Association; overseeing publications; coordinating special academic and college events; and service on various committees.
"Arne will bring special expertise in the arts to this position," said Bill Richardson, dean of the Edwards College. "He will help us begin planning to move toward the creation of a School of the Arts and a School of the Humanities within our college."
Flaten joined the Coastal faculty in 2003. He earned a bachelor's degree in studio art and English literature at St. Olaf College in 1989 and a master's degree and Ph.D. in art history from Indiana University-Bloomington in 1996 and 2001, respectively. He is the co-director of Ashes2Art, a computer program that develops virtual reconstructions of ancient monuments. The program received a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
He has contributed articles, essays, book reviews, catalogue and encyclopedia entries to such publications as "Word & Image," "Oculus," "The Art Market in Italy," "The Chronicle of Higher Education," "Encyclopedia of the Renaissance," "Encyclopedia of Sculpture" and "Renaissance Quarterly," as well as various exhibition catalogues and conference proceedings.__ His book on portrait medals and plaquettes is scheduled to be published in 2008, and he is co-editor of two other forthcoming volumes.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Flaten has received grants and fellowships from the Fulbright Commission; the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Renaissance Society of America; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the J. Paul Getty Research Institute; and multiple grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
His areas of expertise include art history, Italian Renaissance, digital reconstructions, graphic novels and technology. His research focuses on the Italian Renaissance, in particular the relationship between portraiture, medals, humanism and the art market of the 15th century.
Departments within the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts are Art, Communication, English, Foreign Languages, History, Interdisciplinary Studies, Music, Philosophy and Religion, Politics and Geography and Theatre. The Waccamaw Center for Cultural and Historical Studies and the Jackson Family Center for Ethics and Values are also part of the College.