New Leadership Appointments in Arts & Sciences

The University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) has announced two new leadership appointments. Candice Rai, UW professor of English and faculty coordinator of the UW in the High School writing program, has been appointed to serve as CAS Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education. Anis Bawarshi, the Thomas L. & Margo G. Wyckoff Endowed Professor of English, has been appointed to serve as Director of the C21 Program. Both will begin their term of service on July 1, 2026, following the completion of Kevin Mihata’s term as the current Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education. They will serve two-year terms, providing the future dean time to determine an approach thereafter while providing stability through the transition period.  

As Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, Rai will coordinate undergraduate policy, practice, advising, and curriculum across the College of Arts & Sciences and provide leadership on supporting undergraduate students’ educational journey from enrollment through graduation and beyond. She will collaborate with students, faculty, departments, and other campus, public, and community stakeholders to sustain and create college-wide curricular initiatives that support inclusive and innovative undergraduate education.  

Joining the UW English faculty in 2008, Rai’s teaching and research focus on place-based, community-engaged, and public approaches to rhetoric and writing; urban and education justice; teacher development and inclusive writing pedagogies; and critical listening practices and ethics. Her publications include Democracy’s Lot: Rhetoric, Publics, and the Places of Invention; Writing Across Difference: Theory and Intervention; and Rhetorical Climatology, among others. Rai directed UW’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric from 2014-2021 and currently facilitates the UW in the High School writing program. At UW and beyond, she has participated in and co-led university-community and school partnerships, civic leadership and community-engaged writing programs, college-level and K-12 curriculum and teacher development initiatives, institutional-level equity work, and public scholarship projects. 

As director of the College of Arts and Sciences Center for 21st Century Liberal Learning (C21), Anis Bawarshi will provide leadership for C21’s two major initiatives, College Edge and gesture early career lab, while also participating in college-level initiatives that include student internships and externships, experiential learning, AI integration, and student career development. 

Joining the UW English faculty in 1999, Bawarshi specializes in the study and teaching of writing, rhetorical genre theory, and writing program administration. He directed the University of Washington's Program in Writing and Rhetoric for ten years and chaired the Department of English for six years. His publications include Genre and the Invention of the Writer: Reconsidering the Place of Invention in Composition; Genre: An Introduction to History, Theory, Research, and Pedagogy; Scenes of Writing: Strategies for Composing with Genres; Ecologies of Writing Programs: Profiles of Writing Programs in Context, and Genre and the Performance of Publics, as well as articles and chapters on writing across difference, writing knowledge transfer, collaborative writing, and uptake. He is currently co-editor for the Reference Guides to Rhetoric and Composition book series. His teaching has been recognized with the Karen Shabetai Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, and he has been nominated for mentoring and leadership awards at the University of Washington. He received the 2026 CCCC Exemplar Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication, a constituent organization within the National Council of Teachers of English, for representing “the highest ideals of scholarship, teaching, and service to the entire profession.” 

The College's current Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, Kevin Mihata, who also helms the C21 program, will step down from his role on June 30, 2026, after more than 30 years of service to the University of Washington. 

“Kevin has been an extraordinary and innovative leader whose accomplishments include creating the Center for 21st-Century Liberal Learning (C21), which boasts a decade-long tradition of offering training programs, internships, and applied courses for CAS students,” says CAS Dean Dianne Harris. “Throughout his tenure, Kevin has supported a number of initiatives in support of the undergraduate experience, always with an eye towards improving student success. He has been an excellent advocate for the College and a champion for all those he serves. Kevin is a true visionary with an insatiable curiosity that fuels his creative sensibility and his desire to make higher education—and the world around him—a better place.”