The Department of English and College of Liberal Arts are thrilled to announce Dr. Julia Schleck has been appointed the next English Chair at CSU. Her five-year term will begin July 1, 2025.

An associate professor and vice chair in the English department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Schleck is an accomplished scholar of Renaissance literature and a prominent advocate for academic freedom and faculty governance. She holds a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from New York University and has published two books on early modern travel literature and empire, Telling True Tales of Islamic Lands (2011) and Conflicting Claims to East India Company Wealth (2024). Additionally, she is co-editor (with Christina Lee, Princeton University) of the book series Connected Histories in the Early Modern World.

While exploring a new line of research inspired by her role as a department administrator and leader in the local, state, and national American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Schleck penned Dirty Knowledge: Academic Freedom in the Age of Neoliberalism, which has been celebrated by the Los Angeles Review of Books as “essential reading for anyone interested in the future of universities and society.” Utilizing her experience as president of the UNL chapter of AAUP, Scheck highlights “the problem of basing academic freedom on employment protections like tenure at a time when such protections are being actively eliminated through neoliberalism’s preference for gig labor” (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) and argues for a new vision of the university’s role in society.

In addition to her acclaimed scholarship, Schleck is a gifted teacher and administrator and has been awarded several distinctions, including the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) National Intellectual Freedom Award (2022), the UNL Faculty Senate’s James A. Lake Award for Academic Freedom (2018), and the UNL Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Humanities (2017).

On teaching, Schleck offers a candid philosophy that aligns seamlessly with the English department’s interdisciplinary values. “I firmly believe that getting students to ask good questions and be genuinely curious about and capable of pursuing many possible answers is the essence of my task in the classroom as well as my work more generally,” said Schleck.

Kjerstin Thorson, dean of the college, praised the deep knowledge and expertise Schleck will bring to the role and department.

“She is an experienced, talented leader with a tremendous sense of vision for the discipline—and indeed for higher education more broadly,” said Thorson. “Her scholarship will bring a richness to the existing excellence in the department. I have every confidence Dr. Schleck will be an extraordinary leader for English.”

Eager to begin her work at CSU and collaborate with new colleagues, Schleck is looking forward to embracing her new home.

“I’m excited to start working with everyone in this strong and vibrant department,” said Schleck. “There’s so much great work that’s already being done. I’m eager to begin discussing all the ways that we can build on this foundation and embrace our roles as intellectual leaders in the university, the community, and our fields.”

The department is honored to have Dr. Schleck join and inspire our faculty, staff, and students, and excited for the creativity and care she will bring to the role.

Dan Beachy-Quick, interim chair and University Distinguished Teaching Scholar shared: “It’s wonderful, a genuine gift, to welcome Dr. Schleck to CSU and the English department. That her scholarly cares have unfolded in such a way that labor, ethics, and the work of knowledge production have led to a path that brings her to this vital leadership role feels remarkable to me. I’m looking forward, more than I can say, to being her colleague.”