Governance

The SLE program is overseen by a Director, who has executive authority over all aspects of curriculum, finances, and postdoctoral fellowships. The Director appoints, from among the lecturers, a coordinator to manage the provision of the curriculum from term to term. The Director and the five lecturers, with DLCL faculty who offer discussion sections, meet weekly to plan instruction.

The Director chairs an advisory committee of faculty representing several departments:

Carolyn Lougee Chappell, History, SLE Director
Philippe Buc, History
Roland Greene, English and Comparative Literature
Richard Martin, Classics
Rob Reich, Political Science
Debra Satz, Philosophy

The intellectual context of SLE is the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (DLCL), the university's largest unit in the humanities. DLCL faculty offer discussion sections each term, and—along with their colleagues from every other department in the humanities—regularly lecture in the program. Moreover, the DLCL is committed to coordinating its rich calendar of events with the SLE curriculum, including lectures by distinguished visitors, one-day conferences, and the annual, month-long visit of the Writer in Residence (in 2008-09, the Japanese-German fiction writer Yoko Tawada). Under the supervision of the Director, DLCL faculty are prepared to advise and participate in realizing the program's curricular agenda.

The program's administrative home is the Introduction to the Humanities Program (IHUM), a unit of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE).