Dr. Honora Chapman, an accomplished professor and administrator, has been named dean of the College of Arts and Humanities.
Chapman has been leading the college as interim dean since July 2019. She previously served as associate dean for over three years.
Chapman received her bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in classics at Stanford University and started her teaching career there as a lecturer in classics from 1998 to 1999. She was a lecturer at Santa Clara University in history, English, religious studies and classics from 1999 to 2002.
She joined the Fresno State faculty in 2002 as an assistant professor of classics and humanities, and soon became the coordinator of classics in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. She also served as the director of the Smittcamp Family Honors College for five years.
She received the 2006 Provost’s Award for Promising New Scholar (highest award for untenured faculty) and the 2013 Award for Excellence in Teaching (highest award for faculty). She also inaugurated the University lecture series Fresno State Talks in spring 2013 and delivered the first Fresno State convocation faculty address in August 2014.
As a scholar, Chapman has focused especially upon the crossroads of cultures in the Greek texts of Flavius Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian. She contributed both translation and commentary to the Josephus Project volume “Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary,” ed. Steve Mason, vol. 1a: Judean War 2 (2008); she is currently working on Judean War 5. She also co-edited the Wiley-Blackwell “Companion to Josephus,” with Zuleika Rodgers (Trinity College Dublin), 2016.
Chapman’s family has roots in the San Joaquin Valley stretching back to the 1860s, making her a fourth-generation resident. Chapman serves on the boards of San Joaquin Valley Town Hall and California Humanities.
The College of Arts and Humanities departments include Art and Design; Communication; English; Media, Communications and Journalism; Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures; Music; Philosophy; and Theatre and Dance; and one program, Armenian Studies.
The college supports four art galleries including the Phebe Conley Art Gallery and M Street Graduate Studios (downtown), 16 discipline-specific computer labs, a tutorial Writing Center, the University Press, a concert hall and the Wahlberg Recital Hall, John Wright Theatre and the Dennis and Cheryl Woods Arena Theatre; dance, painting, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics studios, a foundry, television and film production studios, The Collegian newspaper, and 90.7 KFSR.
The college employs about 150 full-time faculty members and more than 160 additional employees that include part-time faculty, graduate assistants and graduate teaching associates, and clerical and technical staff.
