THE PUBLIC WORK OF INTERPRETATION
SATURDAY, 9 JANUARY, 5:15–6:30 P.M., LONE STAR F–H, JW MARRIOTT
William D. Adams was nominated by President Barack Obama as the tenth chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and confirmed by the Senate in July 2014. Adams previously served as president of Colby College from 2000 to 2014 and as president of Bucknell University from 1995 to 2000. He was vice president and secretary of Wesleyan University from 1993 to 1995 and program coordinator of Great Works in Western Culture at Stanford University from 1986 to 1988. Earlier in his career, he held various teaching positions at Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and the University of North Carolina. Adams served in the Vietnam War as a first lieutenant in the United States Army. In 1977, he became a Fulbright Scholar and conducted research at the École des Hautes Études and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He received a BA from Colorado College and a PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz.