study across all of the liberal arts and sciences." In this role he oversaw six schools, 29 departments, and several special programs and labs. ''The Scandal of the Empire'', Dirks's third book, was published in 2006.

Dirks left Columbia in 2013 to serve as chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. He resigned from the chancellorship in 2017. He remains on faculty of the history department at Berkeley, an unpaid position that enables him to continue to teach and work for the university.