Office of the Dean
William A. Cohen
Associate Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Studies
Email: wcohen@umd.edu
The Associate Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Studies aims to ensure that students have superb educational experiences at the University of Maryland and that they can achieve academic excellence.
The work of his office facilitates students’ curricular and co-curricular activities, research undertakings, and global engagement. It also promotes increased access to higher education and degree completion. These priorities enhance student success, enrich the campus community, and contribute to the university’s national reputation.
Dean Cohen supervises the General Education program, learning outcomes assessment, living-learning programs, and campus advising policies. His office supports the retention, graduation, and instructional needs of all undergraduate students.
Dean Cohen oversees the Honors College, College Park Scholars, Letters and Sciences, Academic Achievement Programs, Orientation, Asian American Studies, Federal Fellows, Global Fellows in Washington, DC, Southern Management Leadership Program, Incentive Awards, Carillon Communities, Individual Studies, Air Force ROTC, Army ROTC, Naval ROTC, National Scholarships Office, First Year Book, Student Success Office, Pre-Transfer Advising and Pre-College Programs.
William A. Cohen was appointed Associate Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Studies in August 2015. Dean Cohen has been a faculty member since 1993. He chaired the English department from 2012 to 2015 and previously served as director of undergraduate studies and as associate chair of English. His scholarship and teaching focus on the literature and culture of the Victorian period; the history of sexuality, the body, and the senses; and literary theory and the novel. He has published numerous books and scholarly articles on these topics, including Embodied: Victorian Literature and the Senses (2009). His research covers authors such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Anthony Trollope. His work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Camargo Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the William Andrews Clark and Huntington libraries. He has lectured widely at universities and as a conference keynote speaker internationally. He holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.