Kenji Hakuta

Kenji Hakuta is the Founding Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts at the University of California, Merced, scheduled for a full opening in Fall, 2005.

A personal message to students:

I was born in Kamakura, Japan, the home of a giant Buddha from the 13th Century. My father was in the import-export business, and as a result, I spent part of my childhood in the U.S. and eventually settled in the United States at age 14, first in New Jersey, and then in Boston where I went to college at Harvard. I graduated in 1975, before most of you were born, but really, I don't feel that ancient.

I started majoring in Government, thinking that a career in law would be interesting, but my interests were transformed into psychology when I met some great faculty and graduate students who were really "into" studying language acquisition in young children. I decided that rather than a traditional career, I would spend my life pursuing esoteric questions such as "How do children learn language?", "What's innate in their brain?" and "What's the difference between monolingual and bilingual people?" I went on to graduate school and have never looked back.

I've done lots of research projects in the area of language, and I also have a social activist side, where I've spent in public policy, especially education.

I've taught at Yale University, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and most recently at Stanford University. I decided to come to UC Merced because I'm thrilled about the creation of a new university. I am especially excited about the Central Valley and its diversity of people and cultures, and the social transformation that is happening here every day.

My interests outside school are in the outdoors (especially hiking, backpacking and rock climbing), tennis, growing vegetables, cooking, and woodworking projects.

Please visit my website at:

http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/khakuta