Springfield College Appoints New Dean of School of Arts and Sciences
Springfield College has announced that Dr. Rachel Rubinstein of Florence, MA, has been named dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. She will officially begin her role on July 12, 2021.
Springfield, Mass….Springfield College has announced that Dr. Rachel Rubinstein of Florence, MA, has been named dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. She will officially begin her role on July 12, 2021.
Rubinstein was Professor of American Literature and Jewish Studies at Hampshire College for sixteen years, where she also served as the Dean of Academic Support and Advising for six years. She subsequently became Holyoke Community College’s inaugural Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs, a position that combined two previously separate divisions. Most recently, she has been serving as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Commissioner of Academic Affairs and Student Success at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, where she has focused on supporting initiatives in the State’s Equity Agenda.
“I am excited about the contemporary perspectives that she brings in fostering student achievement and success as well as her talent in breaking down silos across diverse constituencies, said Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Martha Potvin. “She is a great fit with the College’s mission and I expect that she will ably lead the School of Arts and Sciences towards further academic quality and excellence.”
The child of immigrants from Mexico, her scholarship focuses on migration, multilingualism, racial formation and literary nationalism, as well as on pedagogies in the fields of ethnic and race studies. She is the author of Members of the Tribe: Native America in the Jewish Imagination, as well as the co-editor of Arguing the Modern Jewish Canon and most recently, Teaching Jewish American Literature, a volume in the MLA’s Options for Teaching series.
“I am honored and excited to bring a commitment to student success, innovative and interdisciplinary teaching and research, and student-centered academic leadership to Springfield College and the School of Arts and Sciences,” said Rubinstein.
Rubinstein received her BA from Yale University in English and her PhD from Harvard University in English and American literature.
