Montana State University announced that William Thomas, a seasoned administrator and faculty member from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has been selected as the new dean of the MSU College of Letters and Science. Thomas will officially assume his role on January 13, 2025.
“William Thomas brings a wealth of experience as a scholar, educator, and administrator,” said Robert Mokwa, MSU’s executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. “His leadership in fostering student success, research, and public service, combined with his deep commitment to preparing the future workforce of tomorrow, will make him a valuable asset to our College of Letters and Science and to MSU as a whole.”
Thomas has served as associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln since 2021. He joined the institution in 2005 as a history professor and the Angle Chair in the Humanities. His previous leadership roles include chairing the history department from 2010 to 2016 and serving as a Big Ten Academic Leadership Program Fellow from 2019 to 2020. A McClymont Distinguished Teaching Fellow and a fellow of the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, Thomas is highly regarded in his field.
In 2023, Thomas was elected vice president of the American Historical Association (AHA), the world’s largest professional organization for historians, with more than 11,000 members. In this role, he leads the association’s division on research and scholarship. Earlier in his career, Thomas was a faculty member at the University of Virginia, where he directed the Virginia Center for Digital History.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Montana State University and inspired by the students, faculty, and staff I met at MSU,” Thomas said. “I’m especially excited about MSU’s land-grant mission and its deep commitment to student success and excellence in research.”
Thomas holds a doctorate and master’s degree in history from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in history from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. His accolades include the Mellon Foundation Award in 2023, the Lukas Prizes/Mark A. Lynton Prize in History in 2021, and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2016, he was named a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow.
Thomas was selected following a competitive national search that attracted a strong pool of candidates. He was among four finalists who visited the MSU campus this month for interviews, public forums, and meetings with faculty, administrators,
