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Ann E. Cudd

  • Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor

Key Areas

Academic vision • academic affairs • faculty life • student life • academic mission • personalizing education • excellence in teaching and research • diversity and inclusion • access and affordability • data-driven decision making • ethics and integrity • strategic planning • evidence-based teaching methods • leadership • mentoring

Professional Biography

As Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor at Pitt, Ann E. Cudd has primary responsibility for the University of Pittsburgh’s academic mission. Her duties include supporting scholarly excellence among more than 4,600 full-time faculty members and student success among the University’s nearly 35,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students on all five Pitt campuses.

Since her appointment in 2018, Cudd has focused her initial priorities on programs, strategies, and initiatives that bolster and enhance the University’s strength and vision for growth and transformation. These include leading efforts to personalize education, build on excellence in teaching and research, foster a culture of diversity and inclusion, improve access and lower student debt, support data-driven decision-making, and achieve efficiencies and cost savings.

In particular, her plans to address access and affordability, as well as diversity and inclusion, have propelled the development of the new Pitt Success Program, a ground-breaking initiative to invest in both current students and prospective students with the greatest need across all five Pitt campuses. Through the program, students who qualify for the U.S. Department of Education’s Pell Grant program now see those federal funds matched dollar for dollar by the University. Cudd has also launched a related initiative—the Provost Academy—a new summer bridge program designed to help students experience a successful first year, with ongoing opportunities for support throughout their remaining undergraduate years. 

In 2019, Cudd spearheaded the creation of the University’s Diversity Statement and announced another signature effort, the Latinx Cluster Hire Initiative that aims to significantly increase the number of faculty focused on Latinx issues throughout the various departments and schools of the University. As well, inspired by public art at Pitt, in collaboration with Senior Vice Chancellor for Business and Operations Greg Scott, she formulated and charged the new Public Art Steering Committee to advise on issues related to the acquisition and placement of works of art in public spaces on campus.

Cudd has led the successful completion of several notable executive searches, including the presidencies of Pitt-Bradford/Pitt-Titusville and Pitt-Greensburg. Most recently, she chaired the search committee charged with identifying the University’s senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine.

Cudd previously served as Boston University’s Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which is the institution’s largest college. In that role, she oversaw all strategic decisions related to the college’s academic, financial, and administrative direction and growth. She also facilitated the success of more than 700 full-time faculty members and 17,800 students—including 1,800 graduate students.

Prior to joining Boston University (BU) in 2015, Cudd served for 25 years at the University of Kansas (KU), where she earned the title of University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. At KU, she held various positions of increasing responsibility—from Director of Graduate Studies and Director of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies to Associate Dean for Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies.

Cudd is an active faculty member in the philosophy department at Pitt, as she was at both BU and KU, and is an accomplished teacher and scholar whose research explores themes of oppression, economic inequality, capitalism and gender. Her philosophical interests—the focus of more than 60 books, articles, and chapters published under her name—span social and political philosophy, philosophy of economics, decision theory and feminist theory.

Cudd holds a Doctorate in Philosophy and two masters—a Master of Arts in Philosophy and a Master of Arts in Economics—all earned from the University of Pittsburgh. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Philosophy from Swarthmore College.

Administrative Positions

  • Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor, University of Pittsburgh, 2018–present
  • Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Boston University, 2015–2018
  • Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies, University of Kansas, 2013–2015
  • Associate Dean for Humanities, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Kansas, 2008–2013
  • Director of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, University of Kansas, 2001–2008
  • Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Philosophy, University of Kansas, 1995–2001

Faculty Positions

  • Professor of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, 2018–present
  • Professor of Philosophy, Boston University, 2015–2018
  • University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of Kansas, 2012–2015
  • Professor of Philosophy, University of Kansas, 2000–2012
  • Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Kansas; affiliated faculty member, 2001–2008
  • Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Kansas, 1994–2000
  • Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Occidental College, 1991–1993
  • Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Kansas, 1988–1991; 1993–1994

Education & Training

  • PhD in Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
  • MA in Economics, University of Pittsburgh
  • MA in Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
  • BA in Mathematics and Philosophy, with Distinction, Swarthmore College

Representative Publications

Books

  • Philosophical Perspectives on Democracy in the 21st Century, co-edited with Sally Scholz, Springer, 2014.
  • Capitalism, For and Against: A Feminist Debate, co-authored with Nancy Holmstrom, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  • Analyzing Oppression, Oxford University Press, 2006.
  • Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology, co-edited with Robin Andreason, Blackwell Publishers, 2004.
  • Theorizing Backlash: Philosophical Reflections on the Resistance to Feminism, co-edited with Anita Superson, Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.

Book Chapters

  • “Feminism and the Libertarian Self-Ownership Thesis,” in Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism, Bas van der Vossen, Jason Brennan, David Schmidtz, eds., Routledge, 2018, pp. 127–139.
  • “Conflicting Commitments and Corporate Responsibility: Amartya Sen on Motivations to Do Good,” in Wealth, Commerce, and Philosophy: Foundational Thinkers and Business Ethics, Eugene Heath and Byron Kaldis, eds., University of Chicago Press, 2017, pp. 401–419.
  • “Domestic Violence as Justification for Asylum” in Citizenship and Immigration - Borders, Migration and Political Membership in a Global Age, A. Cudd and W. Lee, eds., Springer, 2016, pp. 217–228.
  • “What is Equality in Higher Education?” in The Equal Society, ed. by George Hull, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, pp. 267–290.
  • “Adaptations to Oppression: Preference, Autonomy, and Resistance,” in Autonomy and Social Oppression, Marina Oshana, ed., Routledge, 2015, pp. 142–160.
  • “Agency and Intervention: How (Not) to Fight Global Poverty,” in Poverty, Agency, and Human Rights, Diana Meyers, ed., Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 197–222.
  • “Human Rights and Global Equal Opportunity: Inclusion not provision,” in Human Rights: The Hard Questions, Cindy Holder and David Reidy, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 193–208.
  • “Resistance is (Not) Futile: Feminism’s Contribution to Political Philosophy” in Out from the Shadows, edited by Anita Superson and Sharon Crasnow, Oxford University Press, 2012, pp.15–31.
  • “The Paradox of Liberal Feminism: Choice, Rationality and Oppression,” in Amy Baehr, Varieties of Feminist Liberalism, Rowman and Littlefield, 2004, pp.37–61.
  •  “Analyzing Backlash to Progressive Social Movements,” Theorizing Backlash: Philosophical Reflections on the Resistance to Feminism, Anita Superson and Ann Cudd, Rowman and Littlefield, 2002, pp.3–16.
  • “Rational Choice Theory and the Lessons of Feminism,” in A Mind of One’s Own, 2nd ed., Louise Antony and Charlotte Witt, eds., Westview Press, 2002, pp.398–417.
  • “Preference, Rational Choice, and Democratic Theory,” in Blackwell’s Companion to Political Philosophy, Robert Simon, ed., Blackwell Publishers, 2001, pp.106–127.
  • “Objectivity and Ethno-Feminist Critiques of Science,” in After the Science Wars: Science and the Study of Science, Keith Ashman and Philip Baringer, eds., Routledge, 2001, pp. 80–97.

Journal Articles

  • “Connected Self-Ownership and Our Obligations to Others,” Social Philosophy and Policy, accepted and forthcoming 2019.
  • “Is Capitalism Good for Women?” Journal of Business Ethics, 127:4(2015): 761–770. Published online May 2014, doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2185-9.
  • “Commitment as Motivation: Sen’s Theory of Agency and the Explanation of Behavior,” Economics and Philosophy, 30(2014): 35–56.
  •  “Wanting Freedom,” Journal of Social Philosophy, 43(Winter 2012): 367–385.
  • “Rape and Enforced Pregnancy as Femicide: Comment on Claudia Card’s ‘The Paradox of Genocidal Rape Aimed at Enforced Pregnancy’,” Southern Journal of Philosophy, XIV(2008):190–199.
  • “Sporting Metaphors: Competition and the Ethos of Capitalism,” Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 34(May 2007): 52–67.
  • “Revolution vs. Devolution in Kansas: Teaching in a Conservative Climate,” Teaching Philosophy, 30(June 2007): 173–183.
  • “Missionary Positions,” Hypatia, 20(2005): 164–182.
  • “How to Explain Oppression,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 35(2005), pp. 20–49.
  • “Revising Philosophy through the Wide-Angle Lens of Feminism,” APA Newsletter on Feminism, (Spring 2003):129–132.
  • “Multiculturalism as a Cognitive Virtue for Scientific Practice,” Hypatia, 13(1998):43–61.
    • Reprinted in Decentering the Center: Philosophy for a Multicultural, Postcolonial, and Feminist World, Sandra Harding and Uma Narayan, eds., Indiana University Press, 2000, pp. 299–317.
  • “Strikes, Housework, and the Moral Obligation to Resist,” Journal of Social Philosophy, 29(Spring, 1998): 20–36.
  • "Is Pareto Optimality a Criterion of Justice?" Social Theory and Practice, 22 (Spring, 1996):1–34.
  • "When Sexual Harassment is Protected Speech: Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment Policy in the University," Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, 4,1 (Fall 1994): 69–81.
  • "Oppression by Choice," Journal of Social Philosophy, 25 (June 1994): 22–44. Reprinted in Practical Ethics, Hugh LaFollette, ed., Basil Blackwell, 1996.
  • "Game Theory and the History of Ideas about Rationality," Economics and Philosophy, 9 (April 1993): 101–133.
  • "Enforced Pregnancy, Rape, and the Image of Woman," Philosophical Studies, 60(1990): 47–59.
  • "Conventional Foundationalism and the Origin of Norms," The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 28,4 (Winter 1990):485–504.
    • Reprinted in Moral Issues in Global Perspectives, Christina M. Koggel, Broadview Press, 1999, and it Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach, Larry May and Jill Delston, eds., 2015.

Awards

  • Honorary Member of Phi Beta Kappa, University of Kansas, inducted 2015
  • University Distinguished Professorship, University of Kansas, awarded 2012
  • KU Women’s Hall of Fame, inducted 2008
  • Byron Caldwell Smith Award, (for most outstanding academic book by a Kansas resident published in two previous years), 2007
  • KU Woman of Distinction, 2005
  • Mortar Board Distinguished Teaching Award, 2005
  • W. T. Kemper Distinguished Teaching Fellowship, 2001
  • KU Center for Teaching Excellence undergraduate teaching award, 2000