Pegeen Reichert Powell Named Chair of the English and Creative Writing Department
Photo: Phil Dembinski ’08On December 17, Senior Vice President and Provost Stan Wearden announced that Interim Dean of Graduate Studies Pegeen Reichert Powell has accepted the position of Chair of the English and Creative Writing Department at the college and will begin her new role at the end of May 2019. Kenneth Daley, who has served as chair of the English Department for more than 13 years, will step down in May 2019.
Reichert Powell’s research includes work on pedagogy, writing program administration, and critical discourse analysis. Her book, Retention and Resistance, about the problem of retention in higher education, was published by Utah State University Press in 2014. Reichert Powell has taught in Columbia’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric, with a special interest in first-year writing. She received her Ph.D. in English from Miami University (Oxford, OH), focusing on Composition/Rhetoric and Sociolinguistics. Before coming to Columbia, she taught at Aurora University in Aurora, IL; St. Xavier University in Chicago; and Duke University in Durham, NC.
With Reichert Powell’s new role, Jeff Schiff, professor of English and Creative Writing, will serve as the new interim dean of Graduate Studies for two years, effective June 1, 2019. Over the last 31 years, Schiff has served the college in numerous roles including director of Graduate Studies in English, coordinator of technology in English, associate chair of the English Department, college-wide graduate/undergraduate director of outcomes assessment, and many other roles.
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