David Horn selected as secretary to Board of Trustees

David G. Horn, professor of comparative studies with an extensive record of university service, has been named secretary of the Ohio State University Board of Trustees. His appointment is effective July 1, 2011.

Horn replaces David Frantz, who is retiring after serving as secretary since 2002. Frantz, a professor emeritus of English, joined the university in 1968 and is a noted expert on the Renaissance era. Frantz will teach a course next spring related to the "Stand up for Shakespeare Program," and also oversee the university's special partnership with the UK's Royal Shakespeare Company.

Last year, Horn became the first faculty member to serve on the board's Academic Affairs and Student Life committee. A new faculty member will be appointed to that position.

As secretary, Horn will coordinate and officiate the work of the Board of Trustees, work as liaison with university leadership, and assist with the board's role in university governance. Among other responsibilities, he will monitor the board's committees, assist in shaping agendas for board meetings, and represent the board with various constituencies. He will report to the Board of Trustees.

In announcing the appointment, board chair Leslie Wexner said Horn's extensive experience as professor and in university governance makes him the ideal candidate for secretary.

"David came to Ohio State in 1990 and has proven to be a skilled teacher, faculty leader and administrator," said Wexner. "He already has provided the board with a broad university perspective as a member of the Academic Affairs and Student Life committee, and will be a wonderful asset as secretary."

"Dr. Horn is an exceptionally accomplished and effective teacher and researcher, in addition to being a leader in Ohio State's shared-governance," said President E. Gordon Gee. "As secretary of our Board of Trustees, Dr. Horn will build on the superb work of David Frantz, bringing unique, valuable perspective to our common mission and strong partnership with the Board."

Horn earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1987 and came to Ohio State as an assistant professor in 1990 after three years' teaching at Stanford. He was promoted to associate professor in 1996 and to professor in 2004.

He was chair of the Department of Comparative Studies from 1999 to 2008. During that time, the unit grew from an academic division with 10 faculty to a department with more than 20. He oversaw the creation of a new undergraduate major and a new doctoral program.

Horn has been active in faculty leadership, including election to two terms in the University Senate, where he chaired the steering committee, the rules committee and the committee for the evaluation of central administrators. He also chaired the University Honors Faculty Advisory Committee, and was a member of a number of committees promoting interdisciplinary research and teaching.

Horn will continue to teach one course a year in Comparative Studies. He is an expert in the history of the human sciences (anthropology, criminology, psychiatry and medicine) in Italy and France. His publications include "Social Bodies: Science, Reproduction, and Italian Modernity" (Princeton University Press, 1996), "The Criminal Body: Lombroso and the Anatomy of Deviance" (Routledge, 2003) and numerous articles and book chapters. He is now working on a third book manuscript on automatic writing, psychiatry and spiritualism in 19th-century Europe.