UMaine Names Emily Haddad Dean of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

University of Maine President Paul Ferguson has appointed Emily Haddad as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, effective July 28. Haddad comes to UMaine from the University of South Dakota, the state’s flagship institution, where she has served for three years as associate dean for academics in the College of Arts & Sciences.

“We are pleased to have Emily join the UMaine community to lead the state’s largest and most diverse liberal arts and sciences college,” says President Ferguson. “Her record as an academic administrator, and a faculty member involved in teaching and research make her an excellent fit for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and its vital role in students’ educational experiences.”

As associate dean at the University of South Dakota, Haddad works closely with faculty and staff on curriculum development, course scheduling, program assessment and academic policies. She also assists students with academic issues and participates in college financial decisions. She co-led the University of South Dakota’s strategic planning process and participated in the college’s implementation of a new, responsibility-centered management budget model. She has recently been involved in projects to increase student success in remedial mathematics, establish an academic program in sustainability, revise the college degree requirements to improve graduation rates, and create a workforce development program for information technology. She has chaired the South Dakota Board of Regents’ English Discipline Council and is an elected regional delegate to the Modern Language Association.

Haddad joined the University of South Dakota faculty in 1997 and was promoted to full professor in 2008. Before moving to the dean’s office, she chaired the Department of English for six years. She continues to teach a course each semester and to mentor graduate students in English. Her research focuses on intercultural contact in 19th-century British literature. She is the author of a book, Orientalist Poetics: The Islamic Middle East in Nineteenth-Century English and French Poetry (Ashgate 2002), as well as articles and other publications. She earned her Ph.D. at Harvard University in comparative literature. Prior to entering graduate school, she spent two years studying Arabic at the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Originally from Massachusetts, Haddad lives in Vermillion, South Dakota with her husband and three sons.