SAR United States

Comprised of approximately 150 universities, the SAR United States National Section promotes the values, goals, and activities of the Scholars at Risk Network throughout the U.S. The SAR United States section works to facilitate regional collaboration and coordination of network activities and events in addition to sharing resources and best practices.

SAR United States member institutions provide advisory services to threatened scholars and university hosts; campaign for scholars who are imprisoned or silenced in their home countries; monitor attacks on higher education communities worldwide; and develop innovative tools and strategies for promoting academic freedom and improving respect for university values everywhere.

SAR United States Chair

The SAR United States Section Chair for the 2021-2023 term is Anne McCall. Anne McCall serves as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Xavier University of Louisiana. Xavier, the only Catholic HBCU in the United States, is particularly well known for its College of Pharmacy, the success of its African American graduates in medical school, a growing portfolio of graduate programs, and a rigorous undergraduate curriculum.

Prior to her current appointment, Provost McCall held faculty administrative positions at Binghamton University (SUNY), where she was Dean of the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences from 2013-2016, and the University of Denver, where she served as Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences from 2008-2013. McCall’s faculty and early administrative career took place largely at Tulane University, where she worked from 1991-2008, teaching French and Women’s Studies and holding positions of program director and Associate Dean.

Anne McCall’s research publications focus on nineteenth-century French fiction and life-writing, most notably on works by George Sand. She has served as President of the George Sand Association. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, where she majored in French and German and studied in Strasbourg, France.

She returned to France for her doctoral studies, which she completed at the Université Strasbourg and lived in Madrid, Spain. Anne McCall is committed to equity and physical, intellectual, and collective freedoms and has a special interest in migrations. She has been active in Scholars at Risk for the past decade and has served as a member of the Steering Committee for the US Section.