Levine Becomes Interim Dean at Arts and Sciences

Posted on July 5, 2006

Longtime UNC faculty member Madeline G. Levine has taken on the role of interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1.

Levine, Kenan professor of Slavic literatures who has taught at Carolina since 1974, will serve until a national search for a new dean is completed. The position became open in February, when the previous dean, Bernadette Gray-Little, was chosen to become Carolina’s executive vice chancellor and provost. Gray-Little began work in that job on July 1.

Among Levine’s many honors include the Thomas Jefferson Award, which she received in 2005. The annual award honors a UNC faculty member who, through personal influence and performance of duty in teaching, writing and scholarship, has best exemplified the ideals and objectives of Thomas Jefferson. UNC faculty members nominate candidates for the honor, which carries a cash prize; a faculty committee chooses the winner.

Levine graduated from Brandeis University magna cum laude with honors in politics, then received a master’s degree in regional studies and a doctorate in Slavic languages and literatures from Harvard University.

Among her scholarly achievements while at UNC are her translations from Polish into English, including translations of 10 books. She has translated many fictional narratives written by Holocaust survivors and the prose of Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz. She edited Milosz’s To Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays.

She spent nearly half of her years at UNC as chair of the Slavic languages and literatures department, where she has been director of graduate studies. She also was undergraduate adviser for the program in Russian and East European studies.

Levine has been on boards and committees for the library, faculty hearings and educational policy and on search committees for dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (twice), provost and the University affirmative action officer. She helped found UNC’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities and Jewish studies program.

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Related coverage is available online:

• Gray-Little Takes Fast Track to UNC Provost Position

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