Associate Dean of the College and Dean of First-Year Students

Dean Morash will be on leave for the Spring 2023 semester. Jillian Marshall will serve as interim dean of first-year students in her absence. Dean Morash looks forward to welcoming the Class of 2027 when she returns later this spring!

As associate dean of the college and dean of first-year students, Emily Morash counsels and advises first-year students on their transition to Connecticut College and academic matters. She and her staff facilitate the First-Year Seminar program and train student advisers (SAs) who work with first-year students as part of the Team Advising program. With the Office of Student Engagement, Morash and her team also organize and run new student Orientation in August and she oversees the selection of the summer reading book for the incoming class.

Morash has previously worked as a visiting instructor in art history and architectural studies. Since joining Connecticut College in 2012, she has taught a range of courses that illustrate how social, political and cultural events shape the built environment, ranging from the Arts and Crafts movement to contemporary architecture to public housing in America.

She worked with the First-Year Seminar Steering Committee, First-Year Seminar Pilot Programs and working groups to develop the First-Year Seminar component of Connections. Her ConnCourse, “Building Culture,” was first offered in 2015-16 and is an interdisciplinary survey of the history of architecture. Morash has also collaborated closely with the Joy Shechtman Mankoff Center for Teaching and Learning, serving most recently as visiting and adjunct faculty coordinator. She has also served as a fellow for the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology.

As an undergraduate student at Smith College, Morash spent a year studying in Florence, Italy, before graduating in 2004 with a bachelor or arts degree in art history and Italian language and literature. She earned a master of arts degree in architectural history from the University of Virginia in 2006. Her master's thesis is titled, “The Città Universitaria and Cultivating a National Identity: Fascist-sponsored Urban Projects and Architecture in Rome.” Morash has worked at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and is the former president of the Thomas Jefferson Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. She has also taught for the Historic Preservation Program for the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Continuing Education Department.

Her dissertation, "Rethinking Italian Domestic Architecture: Gio Ponti, Milan, and Lo Stile, 1941-1947," examines the development of domestic architecture in the final years of the fascist period and the Second World War and into the immediate postwar period. Her research interests include modern domestic architecture, the role media (film, periodicals and other publications) play in the development of modern architecture, and the publicity of modern architecture through exhibitions. Morash has presented her research at the NESAH Student Symposium and at the Annual Meetings of the Society of Architectural Historians.

Phone: 860-439-2050 Fanning Hall

Interim Dean of First Year Students

For the Spring 2023 semester, Jillian Marshall will serve as interim dean of first-year students while Dean Morash is on leave. Dean Marshall joined the Connecticut College Psychology department in 2012.

Jillian Marshall has taught PSY 100: Introduction to Psychology and PSY 100 Labs. She also advises and assists students in conducting independent studies and honor theses. She has developed and implemented new curricula for both lecture and lab, most recently designing an intensive 5-week, online PSY 100 course for the summer session.

Marshall is a faculty adviser for both the Psychology major and minor and the Neuroscience major. She is also co-advisor of the College’s chapter of Psi Chi: The International Honor Society in Psychology.

As a Conn alumna, Marshall is an active member of the Connecticut College community. She serves as chair of the New Faculty Orientation Committee, is a faculty fellow for the Endeavor Faculty Development FYS Advising Seminar, and a member of the College’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. She is Green Dot trained through the Office of Sexual Violence and Prevention Advocacy and trained in Gatekeeper Suicide Prevention through Student Counseling Services. Marshall and her PSY 100 students also support the local community each semester by participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in the fall and the Walk for Multiple Sclerosis in the spring.

Marshall is an advocate for her students and advisees. She frequently attends campus events, games, concerts, and performances in support of her students. Marshall is an advisor for the Women’s Club Lacrosse student-organized club and the faculty liaison for the Women’s Varsity Lacrosse Team.

Her areas of focus include general psychology and experimental psychology. She is interested in the impact of stress and anxiety on memory formation, and sports psychology and elite performance in conjunction with identity development and well- being.

She holds a bachelor's degree from Mercyhurst University and a master's degree in psychology from Connecticut College.

Her courses currently include Introduction to Psychology and psychology laboratories.

firstyear@conncoll.edu

Assistant Director of Student Success

As Assistant Director of Student Success, Paula assists first year students in transitioning to college and achieving their academic goals. Paula has been at Connecticut College since 2005 in various roles and is knowledgeable about campus resources and can answer the questions you might have about almost everything that goes on in your first year at Connecticut College.

psorb@conncoll.edu Phone: 860-439-2823