For Immediate Release

For more information, contact Kate Worster 641-269-3404

August 27, 2007

Reynolds to lead Center for the Humanities

Daniel Patrick Reynolds, associate professor of German at Grinnell College, has been appointed to a three-year term as director of the Center for the Humanities at the College, to begin this academic year. He joined the faculty at Grinnell in 1998, after earning a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has served on the Executive Advisory Board of the Center since 2003.

In accepting the appointment, Reynolds said, "The humanities are essential for anyone dedicated to the liberal arts. My plan for the center is to reach a wider audience with programming that has broad appeal and highlights the relevance of the humanities for students and faculty in the social studies and the sciences." Reynolds believes "the performing and fine arts should have greater prominence in the center's programming. I hope to do all of this while continuing to attract world-renowned scholars to Grinnell College who will enrich the intellectual life of the campus, thus building on the successes that Alan Schrift has achieved for the center."

While at Grinnell, Reynolds has been active in a number of faculty initiatives, including leading a summer faculty workshop on "The Meanings of a Liberal Education." He has served as chair of the gender and women's studies concentration, served two terms on the College's Curriculum Committee, and is currently chair of the Department of German. He has also been involved in collaborations between Grinnell and the University of Iowa. His scholarly work focuses on 20th-century and contemporary German literature and film, and on German colonial history and literature.

The Center for the Humanities was created in the fall of 2000 to support research and teaching in the humanities at Grinnell, to be a forum for sustained interaction between the humanities and the social and natural sciences, and to provide students and faculty with the opportunity for intensive intellectual collaborations with each other and with leading visiting scholars. Each year, the center's activities focus on a broad theme. The annual theme is selected by the center's Advisory Board in consultation with that year's Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities.

Tyler Roberts, associate professor of religious studies, was interim director during the center's first year. Alan Schrift, F. Wendell Miller Professor of Philosophy, has served two terms as its director since then.

Grinnell College, founded in 1846, is an internationally renowned, private, residential liberal arts college with some 1,500 students. Located in Grinnell, Iowa, the College awards the bachelor of arts in 25 areas of study.

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