Matthew Delmont, the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History and an expert on African-American history and the history of the civil rights movement, has been at Dartmouth since 2019 and last month was named interim provost through June 2028.
As interim provost and a member of President Sian Leah Beilock's senior leadership team, Delmont will play a key role as Dartmouth's chief academic officer and also oversee the university's expansive research enterprise.
Delmont has served in a number of leadership roles at Dartmouth, including most recently as the Frank J. Guarini Associate Dean of International Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies and chair of the Department of African and African American Studies. He also served as special adviser to President Philip J. Hanlon '77 on faculty diversity.
The author of numerous books on African-American history, including Until the Last Gun Is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America's Soul and Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad, Delmont has been a Guggenheim Fellow and winner of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award.
In this Q&A, Delmont—who grew up in Minnesota before graduating from Harvard and then earning a master's degree and PhD from Brown—discusses what he looks forward to, serving as interim provost, and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead.
Q: What do you see your role being as interim provost, especially right now?
Officially, the provost is the chief academic officer and chief budget officer, and I'm eager to take on both roles. As an interim, my first job is to provide stability: working with the excellent team in the Provost's Office and with the deans to keep the important regular work moving, and supporting our faculty, staff, and students.
Over the next 20 months, I'm particularly interested in strengthening internal communications across campus. I love this work because it builds a foundation for success. I'll be doing everything I can to remove barriers and provide resources to support faculty and student research, scholarship, and creative work.
Q: What drew you to Dartmouth and what do you value most about being here?
I came to Dartmouth because my partner, Jacqueline Wernimont, was recruited to be the Distinguished Chair for the Digital Humanities and Social Engagement research cluster. It was exciting because it gave her the opportunity to pursue critical and artistic work and to give shape to what digital humanities would look like here. It was equally exciting for me because Dartmouth has a tremendous history department, and eight years in, it's been a great place to produce and share research.
Interim Provost Matthew Delmont talks with Leonora Mortensen and Delfina Strazzolini '27, who were presenting their projects (Kindred and Sense, respectively) during the student showcase session of Dartmouth's AI at 70: What Must Remain Human? conference. (Photo By Sophia Scull '25)
Q: Support for research and science, including at Geisel School of Medicine, Thayer School of Engineering, Tuck School of Business, and Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, is a big part of the job. How are you approaching this?
Research looks different across Dartmouth's five schools. My first goal is to learn what colleagues at Tuck School of Business, Thayer School of Engineering, Geisel School of Medicine, Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, and the School of Arts and Sciences are doing, understand what's working well and what additional support they need, and cultivate communities of scholars who can think, work, and create together.
For the past five years, I've served as Frank J. Guarini Associate Dean of Faculty for Interdisciplinary and International Studies. That division includes 13 programs and departments, a microcosm of the university. My job was to understand colleagues' research and classroom work and help support it. I loved it because I'm curious, and it exposed me to aspects of academic work I don't see as an American historian. I plan to bring that same approach to this role.
Q: Were you able to attend any of the AI at 70 conference? What's your thinking on AI and higher ed?
AI in higher education is an important, complicated, and messy topic and the AI at 70 conference did a nice job of bringing together many perspectives.
I enjoyed my time at the conference. I was struck by how many speakers emphasized the importance of not knowing something and sitting with that discomfort. A throughline, including from keynote speaker Yann LeCun and cognitive scientist Molly Crockett, was that current large language models are good at analyzing certain aspects of the world, but poor at grasping the larger, messier, more human ways we live our lives.
There are ways that we can and should be using AI, but there are also many ways it's the wrong tool. We shouldn't lose sight of the human dimensions of research and teaching that technology cannot replace.
Q: What about your research on the history of the civil rights movement and African-American history has informed your leadership philosophy?
I've published six books and am working on my seventh. My work centers on the stories we tell about the past, and on finding new voices who can help us tell truer ones, so we can make better-informed decisions today and in the future.
I always tell my students you can't understand American history without understanding African American history. My research aims to enrich our understanding of the American experience.
That's challenging work right now, but my research has taught me the importance of telling the truth in public. I've given dozens of presentations on my books to audiences across demographics and the political spectrum, and almost without exception, they're eager to learn and be open to hard stories about the past. That has renewed my faith that most Americans want a full, nuanced accounting of our history. Most Americans know a simplified, whitewashed version doesn't serve any of us.
Q: Where can students or faculty find you on campus? Where is one of your favorite places to work or spend time?
I like Baker Library a lot, both for browsing and checking out books and for grabbing a coffee at the Novack Cafe. You'll also often see me running the stadium steps or circling the track.
I'm looking forward to seeing new parts of campus in this role. Last week I went to the pumpkin derby in front of the Life Sciences Center for the first time. I'm sure there are many more spaces and traditions I haven't encountered, and I'm eager to learn about them.
Q: Is there anything we didn't ask that you'd like people to know?
Work-life balance is really important to me. I've loved coaching my son's baseball team and serving as a chauffeur for soccer, baseball, and football practices. It's a juggling act to hold an administrative role and be a parent, and I'm grateful for my partner's support as I navigate this new role.
Coaching keeps me grounded. Kids don't care about tenure. It's a completely different world from writing or working alongside faculty, and it keeps everything in perspective.
It's also part of my theory of leadership: this work has to be sustainable over the long term, for me and for my team. It doesn't do any of us any good to burn out. That's why I protect time to run almost every day, which keeps me balanced and ready for the day's work and will encourage my team to keep space in their day for whatever brings them joy.