Tone Appointed Interim Dean of Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Posted April 8, 2019

John Tone, professor in the School of History and Sociology and associate dean of undergraduate studies in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, will serve as interim dean. Tone will officially assume the role Sept. 1, following the departure of Dean Jacqueline Royster.

Tone joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 1990. He has served as the associate dean since 2008, acting as the lead administrator for strengthening the undergraduate educational experience in the College, including issues related to curriculum, recruitment and admissions, advising, and graduation and career services. He also serves as chair of the College Awards Committee and advisor and College liaison for the Undergraduate Student Advisory Board. Tone also provides oversight for the Ivan Allen College Ambassadors Program, and leadership, training, and recognition activities related to undergraduate affairs in the College, among others.

“Thank you to Dr. Tone for his service to the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts during the forthcoming leadership transition,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president of Academic Affairs and K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “We appreciate his continued commitment to serving the College and the Georgia Tech community and know his leadership will provide critical continuity as we search for the next dean.”

Tone has served in a variety of roles in the College and beyond, most recently as the interim chair for the School of Economics in 2017-18, as well as numerous committees, boards, and task forces. His campus contributions also include service as a current advisory board member for Serve Learn Sustain. His current research is on the history of yellow fever. Other research interests include agriculture, health, and the environment, as well as modern global history and science, technology, and nationalism with geographic focus in Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

He has written several articles and books, including “The Fatal Knot: The Guerrilla War in Navarre and the Defeat of Napoleon in Spain” (1995), “La guerrilla Española” (1999), and “War and Genocide in Cuba” (2006). Notably, “The Fatal Knot: The Guerrilla War in Navarre and the Defeat of Napoleon in Spain” was a selection of the History Book Club and received the Literary Prize of the International Napoleonic Society in 1999. Tone was subsequently named a Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society. He has also received grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Philosophical Society.

Beyond his published books, Tone has authored or co-authored nearly 100 contributions to refereed journals, book chapters, book reviews, and conference presentations and proceedings. Tone received a master’s and Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 1983 and 1989, respectively. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia College in 1981.

Tone will serve until a new dean is named. A nationwide search using an external firm to find the next dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair will begin in late summer or early fall.