Dr. Christina Clark joined Marymount University as dean of the School of Arts & Sciences on July 1. Clark, who had served in a variety of faculty and leadership roles at Creighton University since 2001, considers the move to be a homecoming.
Growing up in a military family, Clark lived in Alaska, the Philippines and other spots before her father’s final post in the Washington, D.C., area, which she considers her hometown. Her mother taught third grade in two parochial schools in Northern Virginia.
“It’s great to be back,” Clark said. “I haven’t lived in the area since I left in 1986 and a lot has changed. It’s wonderful to be in such a diverse place where you have a melting pot of cultures, people and traditions.”
Dr. Rita Wong, Marymount’s interim provost, said Clark has an impressive background of teaching, scholarship and administrative experience. Wong also praised the new dean’s energy.
“She hit the ground running and has already immersed herself in learning everything she can about the university and meeting people in the School of Arts and Sciences and others across campus,” Wong added.
As a teenager, Clark studied at the Virginia Ballet Company in Annandale and, during summers, in New York at the School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theater School. She danced with Virginia Ballet Company, Festival Ballet of Rhode Island and Washington Ballet. While she thought about a career as a dancer, she eventually chose to attend college and majored in classics at Georgetown University.
While studying abroad her junior year at Trinity College, Dublin, she decided to pursue an academic career, though she worked in business for several years before graduate school. In addition to studying ancient literature, art and history as a grad student, she participated in archaeological projects in Greece. After earning her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Clark taught at several large land grant universities and small liberal arts colleges before taking a position in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at Creighton, a Jesuit university in Omaha, Nebraska.
In 1999–2000 Clark was a Junior Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., where she began researching the representation of nonverbal behavior in archaic Greek poetry. This interest arose from her ballet experience and study of Greek choral poetry, which involved words, music and dance.
“Studying ancient Greek and Roman civilizations and cultures is a great way to connect with some of the best that human beings have produced,” she said. “It’s also a way to focus on beauty and wisdom for living a good life.”
Her other research interests are Greek and Latin poetry and gender studies.
In addition to teaching and scholarship, Clark served in a variety of administrative roles at Creighton, including chair of her department and director of Health Administration and Policy.
Her husband, Gregory Bucher, also a professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at Creighton, will teach at the University of Maryland, College Park this academic year. Their daughter, Genevieve, is a high school sophomore. The family lives in Ballston. Clark said they love the cultural opportunities in the nation’s capital and the natural beauty of the Virginia countryside.
Photo caption:
Dr. Christina Clark
