Elizabeth Spiller has been named the next executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. When Dr. Spiller takes on her new role in March, she will also be a tenured professor of English at the university.
Since 2017, Dr. Spiller has served as dean of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Davis. With more than 900 faculty across 35 departments, the college is the largest and most diverse at the university, serving 15,000 undergraduate majors and 1,900 graduate students. Earlier, Professor Spiller served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech.
Speaking on campus, Dr. Spiller said that “I am honored and excited for the opportunity to work with Chancellor Green and with faculty and staff to pursue and expand UNL’s deep commitments to creating unrivaled educational opportunities and developing new knowledge that changes our world.”
A scholar of Renaissance literature, she specializes in early modern literature and culture with emphasis on the history of reading, and on literature and science. She is the author of two books, Reading and History of Race in the Renaissance (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and Science, Reading and Renaissance Literature: The Art of Making Knowledge, 1580-1670 (Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Dr. Spiller is a graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts, where she majored in English literature. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in English and American language and literature from Harvard Univerity.