Jennifer Joyce

Jennifer (Jenny) Joyce is the dean of the first-year class. She is responsible for overseeing the academic progress of first-year students and chairs the Smith Reads program as well as works closely with the liberal arts advising program. She possesses an extensive background in teaching first-year students and is passionate about guiding them through their academic journey. 

Prior to Smith, Dean Joyce was at Villanova University for fifteen years serving as the associate director of the Center for Irish Studies and teaching professor in the Augustine and Culture First-Year Seminar Program, which allowed her to play a pivotal role in guiding students’ transition from high school to college within the residential liberal arts tradition. In addition to teaching literature, cultural studies, and justice studies courses, Dean Joyce designed and coordinated a first-year specific international summer internship program in Dublin, Ireland. Before Villanova, she taught at George Washington University and the Catholic University of America. A recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching and of the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, Dean Joyce has distinguished herself as a professor, mentor, academic adviser, coach, and administrator.

Dean Joyce earned her doctorate in English from the University of Rhode Island, and her bachelor and master of arts in English with concentrations in honors, gender and women’s Studies, and theology from Villanova University. She specializes in contemporary American and Irish literature, and in her spare time, enjoys reading, concerts, spin, yoga and meditation, body combat, making playlists, coaching softball pitching, watching British TV, and cheering on the Baltimore Orioles. 

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