James Brockmole, professor and chair of the Department of Psychology and a former associate dean in the University of Notre Dame’s College of Arts & Letters, has been named dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Baylor University. His term will begin July 1.
Brockmole spent the last three years as department chair, and he previously served as associate dean for the social sciences, associate dean for research and strategic initiatives, and director of the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts.
“I am honored to serve as the next dean of Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences. I believe faith-based universities are positioned to address the world's biggest challenges by blending rigorous inquiry with a deep sense of moral purpose and a commitment to human flourishing,” Brockmole said. “While I am excited to join Baylor’s vibrant community and to help advance its academic goals, distinctive Christian mission, and vision for the future, a part of me will always remain rooted in the lessons I’ve learned and the work I’ve done here at Notre Dame.”
As department chair, he has been instrumental in the development of the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic, the creation of Notre Dame’s new human neuroimaging center, a reenvisioning of the undergraduate neuroscience program, and many significant faculty hires.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brockmole helped develop Notre Dame’s protocols for laboratories and libraries to reopen and remain functional, and he also authored the College’s playbook for reopening in-person human subjects and community-based research. As associate dean for research and director of ISLA (now known as the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good), he helped A&L faculty achieve significant increases in external funding applications and awards, created new research opportunities for faculty and students, and restructured conference support.
“While we are sad to see Jim leave Notre Dame, this is a wonderful opportunity for him, and we are excited to see him take on this significant role at Baylor,” said Kenneth Scheve, the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. “The leadership and vision he cultivated through his many roles at Notre Dame have equipped him to excel in this new position, and I wish him nothing but the best as he prepares to become dean.”
Brockmole joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2009 as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 2017. He previously served on the faculty at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom and was a postdoctoral fellow at Michigan State University. A 1999 graduate of Notre Dame, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003.
His research focuses on understanding how human observers acquire information about objects and scenes, how that information is retained in memory, and how stored knowledge about the visual world guides behavior. The work in his Visual Cognition Laboratory sits at the intersection of research on visual attention, visual memory, gaze control, spatial cognition, embodied cognition, and cognitive aging.
Brockmole has previously served as editor-in-chief of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review as well as associate editor of the journals Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics and Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. He is an elected fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Psychonomic Society, and Phi Beta Kappa Society.
