Laura Belmonte, a history professor at Virginia Tech, began her tenure as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences on August 1, 2019. Belmonte had most recently served as associate dean for instruction and personnel in the College of Arts and Sciences at Oklahoma State University. There she had previously served as director of the American Studies Program, which she co-founded; head of the Department of History; and a co-founder of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program.
A specialist in the history of U.S. foreign relations, Belmonte is author of Selling the American Way: U.S. Propaganda and the Cold War and numerous articles on cultural diplomacy. Her most recent book, A History of the International LGBT Movement, will be published by Bloomsbury as part of the series “New Approaches to International History.”