Georgetown has named Soyica Diggs Colbert (C’01), the university’s vice president for interdisciplinary initiatives, as interim provost.
As the chief academic officer at Georgetown, Colbert will work with school deans and administrative colleagues to advance the educational and research programs for the College of Arts & Sciences, the Walsh School of Foreign Service, the McDonough School of Business, the McCourt School of Public Policy, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Continuing Studies. She begins her new role today.
With 11 years on the faculty at Georgetown, Colbert is the Idol Family Professor who has taught in the departments of Black Studies and Performing Arts and most recently held the position of vice president for interdisciplinary initiatives. She previously served as interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.
The appointment comes as Robert M. Groves transitions from his role as provost and executive vice president to assume the duties of interim president following the announcement that John J. DeGioia (C’79, G’95) stepped down from his role as Georgetown president after 23 years. DeGioia will become president emeritus and will continue as a member of the faculty.
“Dr. Colbert is a terrific leader, faculty member, and administrator and we look forward to the contributions she will make as interim provost,” Groves said. “She has our gratitude for taking on this position at this time of significance for our university community.”
In her most recent role as the inaugural vice president for interdisciplinary initiatives, Colbert worked alongside other university leaders to build cross-school and cross-campus activities. Her work built on the success of collaborations like the Tech & Society Initiative and the Emergent Ethics Network to foster collaboration across units and help progress faculty research.
“I am honored to serve in this critical role as interim provost and am grateful for the trust placed in me to work alongside Georgetown’s exceptional faculty as they make impacts inside and outside the classroom,” Colbert said. “I look forward to working with the entire main campus community as we continue to produce world-class research and train our graduates to serve the common good.”
Colbert has held numerous leadership positions at the university, including vice dean in the College of Arts & Sciences, chair of the Department of Performing Arts, director of the Theater and Performance Studies Program, director of Arts Initiatives, member of the Racial Justice Working Group, and chair of the Task Force on Gender Equity.
As a scholar, Colbert is an expert in African American studies, from Black culture to history and theater with a focus on the 19th through 21st centuries. Colbert earned her undergraduate degree in English at Georgetown in 2001 prior to earning her master’s and Ph.D. from Rutgers University.
Colbert is the author of multiple books, including the award-winning Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, Bodies: Theory for Theatre Studies, Black Movements: Performance and Cultural Politics, and The African American Theatrical Body. She has also contributed to many national newspapers and publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and CNN.
She has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship, and, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, has received a Schomburg Scholars-in-Residence Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship, Mellon Summer Research Grant, and the Robert W. Woodruff Library Fellowship.
Outside of Georgetown, Colbert has engaged the community as the associate director at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. She has also given lectures at institutions across the country and the world. She also serves as a creative content producer for the Public Theatre’s audio play, shadow/land, and a curator for the exhibition “Art is Energy”: Lorraine Hansberry, World Builder at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
