Ralph Pearson

Provost and Vice President of Academics

Ralph L. Pearson began his work as Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs on August 15, 2001.

Prior to his appointment at Duquesne, Pearson served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota; Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio; Dean of University College at Loyola University in Chicago; Dean of Community Outreach and Services at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky; and founding Executive Director of the Greater Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges and Universities.

In addition to holding faculty appointments in the Department of History at the universities where he served as an administrator, he was on the history faculty at Xavier University in Cincinnati and at the University of Bridgeport.

The focus of Pearson's research and publications has been urban and ethnic history. He has published papers on the Harlem Renaissance, the black sociologist-educator Charles Spurgeon Johnson, and the history of Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut.

Pearson received his bachelor's degree in psychology from Gettysburg College; an M.A. in history from New York University; and an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from The Johns Hopkins University.