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MEDIA CONTACT: Charles
R. Loebbaka at (847) 491-4887 or at c-loebbaka@northwestern.edu
March 30, 2004
Andrew Wachtel Named Dean of Graduate School
Andrew Wachtel |
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Andrew Wachtel has been appointed dean of The
Graduate School at Northwestern University, effective Sept. 1, it
was announced by Provost Lawrence B. Dumas.
A faculty member at Northwestern
since 1991, Wachtel is Bertha and Max Dressler Professor in the
Humanities, director of the Center for Comparative and International
Studies (CICS) and chair of the department of Slavic languages and literatures.
Wachtel will succeed Richard Morimoto, who has served dean of The Graduate
School for the past six years and who will return to full-time teaching and
research
as John Evans Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Rice Institute
for Biomedical Research.
Dumas said, “President Bienen and I are pleased to be able to add a distinguished
academic humanist to the University's administrative team, and we very much look
forward to working with Wachtel in fulfilling our shared commitment to strengthening
further graduate study at Northwestern.”
“As chair of his department since 1997, he has been a vigorous administrator,
participating centrally in the development of the Slavic department into one
of the very strongest in the nation,” Dumas said. “He has shown similar
energy and imagination as director of CICS, director of the Program in Comparative
Literary Studies (1999-2002) and a member of numerous University committees.”
Wachtel’s University service includes membership on the Program Review
Council (1998-2002) and the General Faculty Committee (1998-2001), including
one year as chair of that important governance body.
Closely associated with graduate education throughout his Northwestern career,
Wachtel served as director of Graduate Studies in Slavic (1991-97) and was
among the persons who participated in the formation of The Graduate School's
Presidential
Fellows Program. He has served as a Senior Fellow in that body since its inception
in 2001-02.
Wachtel is the author or editor of 10 books and more than 50 articles on Russian
and South Slavic literature, culture, history and society. His most recent
published book is “Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation: Literature and Cultural Politics
in Yugoslavia” (Stanford University Press, 1998). Earlier books include “The
Battle for Childhood: Creation of a Russian Myth” (Stanford, 1990), “An
Obsession with History: Russian Writers Confront the Past” (Stanford, 1994),
and “Petrushka: Sources and Contexts” (Northwestern University Press,
1998). Forthcoming books include “Remaining Relevant after Communism? Writers
and Society in Eastern Europe since 1989” and “A History of the Balkans.” In
recognition of his academic work in the area of literary criticism he was elected
to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.
Wachtel is also active as a translator of contemporary Russian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian,
Slovenian and Bulgarian. His book-length translation of the work of the Russian
poet Anzhelina Polonskaia will appear later this year from Northwestern University
Press. As editor of that Press's acclaimed series "Writings from an Unbound
Europe," Wachtel endeavors to identify and publish the most interesting
contemporary poetry and prose from Central and Eastern Europe.
For his work in areas relating to US foreign policy Wachtel was elected to
the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations in 2001.
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