March 30, 2004
Andrew Wachtel Named Dean of Graduate School
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. |