Assistant Vice-Principal Dean of Arts and Divinity

The Assistant Vice-Principal Dean of Arts and Divinity is a member of the Principal’s Senior Management Team. Reporting directly to the Master of the United College, the Dean works closely with the Master, Heads of School, other AVPs, members of the Senior Management Team, senior academics and relevant Professional Services Unit Directors.

The Dean advises the Heads of Schools in the Faculties of Arts and Divinity on aspects of University regulations and academic procedure as relevant to their remit, and offers informal counsel. They also support Schools in the implementation of their strategies, monitoring and approving developments such as staffing and budgetary changes and the creation and implementation of new policies and procedures.

The Dean supports the development, establishment and leadership of interdisciplinary and cross-Faculty academic initiatives in research, teaching and innovation.

Professor Catherine O’Leary

Catherine is a Professor of Spanish in the School of Modern Languages. Her research focuses on contemporary Spanish theatre, censorship, and exile and cultural memory. She is the Director of the University’s interdisciplinary Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute (CIMS), based in the School of Modern Languages.

Before moving to Scotland, she was the Irish Universities’ representative on the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland Board (2009-2013), a Maynooth University representative on the Irish Humanities Alliance (2013), and was a member (2004-2013) and later Vice-chair (2009-2013) of the Modern Languages, literary and Cultural Studies Committee of the Royal Irish Academy.

In Scotland, at national level, Catherine is founding member and Co-Chairperson of the Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance (SAHA), established in 2019 to give a public and collective voice to the Arts and Humanities in the context of Higher Education in Scotland. SAHA works to enhance public and governmental understanding of the creative, social and economic contribution of the arts and humanities to the well-being and advancement of Scottish society, and collaborates with sister alliances both nationally and internationally. Within SAHA, Catherine currently chairs a working group on Languages in Scotland, and is a member of the Environmental Humanities working group.

She serves on the Board of Governance of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and is University of St Andrews representative in the Scottish Chapter of the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce.

Catherine studied International Marketing and Languages at Dublin City University before going on to complete a PhD in Spanish literature at University College Dublin. Her first academic post was at Maynooth University (2000 – 2013), also in Ireland. She held various leadership roles there, before moving to St Andrews as Reader in Spanish in 2013. She was appointed to Professor in 2018. At the University of St Andrews, Catherine previously served as Head of the Spanish Department, Associate Dean of Arts and Divinity, and elected Professorial member of University Court.

As Dean, she works closely with the Master, the VP Research, and with the Heads of academic Schools in the Faculties of Arts and Divinity. She also line manages two of the university’s cultural units: the Laidlaw Music Centre and the Byre Theatre. She currently leads working groups on Public Engagement, Campus Art and the University’s historical links with Australian indigenous communities. She chairs the Town Estates Oversight Board, the University Teaching and Research Ethics Committee (UTREC) and co-chairs the Sustainability Academic Network. She is a member of the University’s EDI Committee, is involved in mentoring schemes and in the university’s work on freedom of speech. She is a member of the Corrour X University of St Andrews Partnership Board, focused on developing collaborations between the highland estate and the university’s researchers, as part of our sustainability strategy.