Michelle Warren has agreed to serve as interim associate dean for interdisciplinary and international studies for the rest of the current academic year, Interim Dean of Faculty John Carey announced this week.
Warren, a professor of comparative literature and member of the Dean of Faculty leadership team, takes on the role for the rest of the academic year, as Matthew Delmont steps into the position of interim provost.
“I want to thank Michelle for taking this on in the midst of a busy academic year,” Carey says. “Michelle’s deep experience as part of the Dean of Faculty team will be invaluable as she makes this transition, and the entire Wentworth team will make every effort to support her.”
“Interdisciplinary studies has been my academic home for 20 years and I’m honored to serve the division as interim associate dean,” Warren says. “We are a remarkable faculty, representing elements of every academic area in arts and sciences in combinations that yield truly distinct endeavors. I look forward to supporting further connections that will amplify excellence in teaching, scholarship, and creativity across the School of Arts and Sciences.”
Warren, the Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor, has been part of the Dean of Faculty leadership team since 2021. As senior advisor for faculty development, diversity, and inclusion, she has focused on faculty recruitment, retention, and policy review across all four academic divisions. She has also built new professional development programs for faculty at every career stage, including leadership programming for department chairs.
For the remainder of the current academic year, Sarah Wasserman, assistant dean for faculty affairs, will steward key programming as acting director of faculty development.
Before joining the dean’s team, Warren spent three years as assistant provost for faculty recruitment. She has directed Dartmouth’s Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship since 2010 and led it to record levels of PhD enrollment. She was the founding director of the Digital Humanities and Social Engagement cluster, a home for cross-disciplinary work in the humanities.
Warren has taught at Dartmouth since 2006, after beginning her career at the University of Miami. Her research looks at race, power, and the European Middle Ages. Her most recent book, Holy Digital Grail: A Medieval Book on the Internet, asks what it means to preserve and read a medieval manuscript online. It won the 2023 Book History Prize from the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing. She has co-edited volumes on postcolonial approaches to the Middle Ages and on early modern quantitative thought, and her research has been supported by Guggenheim and ACLS fellowships.
Warren has taught courses on Chaucer, race in the Middle Ages, and global literary theory. Her introductory course, Read the World, won a Dartmouth award for excellence in course design.