TRACEY HUCKS has been named Colgate University’s provost and dean of the faculty. She will leave her current position as James D. Vail III professor at Davidson College and return to her alma mater, assuming responsibilities as provost and dean on July 1. Hucks, a nationally regarded and prolific scholar of American religious history and Africana Studies, earned her bachelor’s degree in religious studies and African American studies from Colgate in 1987. Colgate awarded Hucks a master’s degree in religious studies in 1990. She earned a second master’s degree in 1995 and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1998 in religious studies, with a scholarly focus on the religions of Africa and the Americas.