Dr. Carolyn Ureña appointed College director of Academic Advising

Dr. Carolyn Ureña was appointed director of Academic Advising in the College of Arts of Science, effective May 1.

Ureña's primary role will be to oversee academic advising programs in the College. 

“Dr. Ureña is the ideal person to take the reins of College Advising as we adapt to the challenges of the post-pandemic era and serve a talented student population," Stephen A. Levin Family Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Paul Sniegowski wrote in an email to College students on April 14. 

Janet Tighe, the former director, recently retired last year. Since her retirement, the College had been looking for a new director of Academic Advising that would best replace her, according to the email.  

After graduating cum laude from Princeton with a bachelor's degree in comparative literature, she attended the University of Maryland, College Park, and pursued a master's degree in English language and literature. She later received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University in comparative literature.

From 2017 to 2020, she worked at the Princeton Writing Program as a postdoctoral lecturer. She also taught first-year seminars at the Princeton Freshman Scholars Institute, intended to prepare FGLI students. 

Ureña joined Penn in 2020 as part of the College Academic Advising staff. Most recently, she served as the assistant dean for Advising and acted as a liaison between groups such as La Casa, Makuu, FGLI Dean's Advisory Board, Penn First Plus, and a variety of other programs and departments at Penn. 

She also has experience in research on subjects such as the medical humanities, decolonial theory, disability studies, and race and coloniality, according to the College website. Some of her published research papers are “Decolonial embodiment: Fanon, the clinical encounter, and the colonial wound,” and “Invisible Wounds: Rethinking Recognition in Decolonial Narratives of Illness and Disability.”

“She is uniquely aware of the opportunities and challenges for academic advising in the College and will be an outstanding partner with offices across the University,” Dean Sniegowski wrote in his email.