Provost Announcement: University Honors Program - Rachel Hollander

I am pleased to announce that Rachel Hollander, Ph.D., will assume the role of Director of the University Honors Program (UHP) effective June 1. Dr. Hollander is an Associate Professor of English and has led the Honors Program on the Staten Island, NY, campus since 2010.

During that time, she has worked to expand the number of students and course offerings in the program, while simultaneously fostering a deeper level of student-faculty engagement across the campus. Under her leadership, the Honors Program became known for specialized academic mentoring, a strong sense of community across our Schools and Colleges and majors, and collaborative programming with student-led groups.

As a literary scholar, Dr. Hollander specializes in 19th- and early 20th-century British fiction and literary theory (especially ethics and gender). Her first book, Narrative Hospitality in Late Victorian Fiction: Novel Ethics, was published by Routledge in 2013. In addition to teaching a wide range of undergraduate and graduate classes in Victorian fiction, gothic literature, modernism, literary criticism, and of course, the Honors core class, she actively mentors both master’s and Ph.D. students in the English program.

While directing the Staten Island Honors Program, she has served in many other roles on that campus, including as a member of several strategic planning committees, as faculty liaison to the resident students, and as a Staten Island faculty representative on the University’s Coordinated Community Response Team. She has been recognized by student groups multiple times for her teaching, mentoring, and leadership.

Dr. Hollander came to St. John’s in 2006, having earned her B.A. in English at Swarthmore College and her M.A. and Ph.D. at Rutgers University, and after two years on the faculty of the University of Texas at El Paso. She looks forward to the challenges and rewards of guiding the UHP in the vibrant and dynamic Queens, NY, campus community.

Please join me in thanking Robert Forman, Ph.D. ’68C for his leadership and commitment to the University Honors Program and its students. Having served for 16 years as its Director, Dr. Forman will maintain a teaching role with the program.