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Date: December 15, 1998
Professor Maria DiBattista to become Master of Rockefeller College
Princeton, N.J. -- Professor of English and Comparative Literature Maria DiBattista, who served as Acting Master of Rockefeller College in 1995-96, will become Master of the College effective July 1, 1999.
A member of the Princeton faculty since 1974, DiBattista specializes in modern British and Continental European fiction. She regularly teaches a variety of popular undergraduate and graduate courses in English and Comparative Literature, including COM 305 The European Novel, COM 306 The Modern European Novel, COM 325 Experimental Fiction, and ENG 341 20th Century Fiction. From time to time, she offers special-topics seminars in American Studies, Women's Studies, and the Freshman Seminar Program. DiBattista received the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1994.
DiBattista's publications include numerous scholarly articles, two books, Virginia Woolf's Major Novels: The Fables of Anon (1980) and First Love: The Affections of Modern Fiction (1991), a monograph, Letteratura Autobiographica Negli USA (1994), and a co-edited volume, High and Low Moderns: British Literature and Culture, 1889-1939 (1997). She has two books in progress: Fast-Talking Dames: Women and Screwball Comedy, and Daughters of Clio: Woolf, Yourcenar and Morante and the Idea of History.
DiBattista has an extraordinary record of effective leadership in a wide array of activities within and beyond the University. Chair since 1990 of the Committee on Film Studies, she has previously chaired both the Committee on Conference and Faculty Appeal and the Judicial Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community. She has served as acting director of the Program in Women's Studies, as Director of Graduate Studies and Departmental Representative in the Department of English, and as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Comparative Literature. DiBattista and been elected to the Faculty Advisory Committee on Appointments and Advancements and the Faculty-Student Undergraduate Life Committee. Previously a member of the editorial board of Princeton University Press, she currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the 20th Century Division of the Modern Languages Association and as a member of the Selection Committee for the Mid-Atlantic Region for the Marshall Scholarships. An alumna of Stanford University, DiBattista earned her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in English at Yale University.
DiBattista will succeed Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures Michael Jennings, who has served as Master of Rockefeller College since 1990. DiBattista's appointment was made by President Harold T. Shapiro on the recommendation of Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel and Dean of Student Life Janina Montero.