Deborah Prentice | |
---|---|
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge | |
Assumed office July 1, 2023 | |
Preceded by | Anthony Freeling (acting) |
Provost of Princeton University | |
In office July 1,2017 –March 13,2023 | |
Preceded by | David S. Lee |
Succeeded by | Jennifer Rexford |
Personal details | |
Education | Stanford University (BA) Yale University (MS,MPhil,PhD) |
Deborah A. Prentice is an American scholar of psychology and university administrator. She has served as the vice-chancellor at the University of Cambridge,England since 2023. [1] She was previously the provost at Princeton University [2] and Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs. [3]
Prentice was raised in Oakland,California,where she was educated at state schools and learned the piano. [4] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in human biology and music from Stanford University in 1984. She then pursued graduate studies at Yale University,where she received an M.S. in psychology in 1986,an M.Phil. in psychology in 1987,and a Ph.D. in psychology in 1989. [5]
Prentice began teaching at Princeton in 1988,becoming an assistant professor in 1989. [3] Prior to becoming provost on July 1,2017,Prentice served as Dean of the Faculty from 2014 to 2017. [3] She became vice-chancellor at the University of Cambridge in 2023 and is also a fellow of Christ's College,Cambridge. [4]
Her research focuses on social norms. [6] She writes that her early focus was on attachments to both abstract views and concrete items;she then researched the way in which social groups form a "dynamic system" that both reflects and is affected by the way in which their members act. She has applied her research to methods of helping people to alter problematic behaviors such as overconsumption of alcohol,gender stereotyping,and violence against domestic partners. [4] Her pioneering work on pluralistic ignorance applied to college campus alcohol use is a foundation of numerous campus alcohol education and bystander intervention programs.
Prentice is married to Jeremy Adelman,who leads the global history lab at the Centre for Research in the Arts,Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge. They have three children. [3] [4]