Kimberley Coles, PhD
Dr. Coles is a cultural anthropologist by training, with expertise in international humanitarian aid and development and state-society relationships in both globalist and local contexts. She conducted her dissertation research in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina on international democracy and election efforts. Recent scholarship focuses on citizens being called upon to do the work of government through, for example, citizen councils and participatory decision-making.
Dr. Coles is a curricular innovator whose pedagogy centers experimentation, inquiry, societal relevance, and decentering oneself. She has long championed cultural immersion, interdisciplinarity and experiential learning, and close faculty-student mentorship. As a professor, she taught courses at the intersection of politics, anthropology, and international studies as well as qualitative research methodologies. Recognized for innovative classroom instruction based on fieldwork-oriented exercises rooted in inquiry, she also spent two years directing an Austria-based study abroad semester, shifting its focus to contemporary issues in Europe and designing a beloved experiential excursion through parts of the former Yugoslavia.
Dr. Coles was the associate provost of institutional effectiveness at the University of Redlands prior to joining ÃÛ½ÛÊÓƵ. She designed and led their reaccreditation process, advised faculty and administrators on assessment models most likely to be meaningful, and helped improve data gathering and collection efforts. She is a strong advocate for structure and infrastructure that allow missions to thrive in daily practice.
Education
- PhD, Cultural Anthropology, University of California, Irvine
- MA, International Politics, American University
- BA, Anthropology, University of California, San Diego