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Faculty and Staff

James Mulholland Named Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs

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NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences has named James Mulholland associate dean of academic and student affairs, effective July 1.

Currently, Mulholland is a professor and associate head in the Department of English. As associate department head, he focuses on faculty mentoring and retention and works with the Graduate School on professional development for future faculty.

In his 13 years at CHASS, he has also served as the director of graduate programs for the English department from 2019 to 2024 and chair of the college’s Graduate Programs Committee from 2021 to 2022. Additionally, Mulholland has served as a Provost Faculty Fellow from 2021 to 2022 and was on the administrative board of the Graduate School from 2020 to 2023; he continues to collaborate with the school as a coordinator for the Graduate Peer Mentoring Collaborative and co-facilitator of Preparing the Professoriate, a yearlong seminar for Ph.D. candidates applying for faculty positions.

James Mulholland

“James is a skilled educator and a collaborative administrator and leader who is passionate about supporting the academic and personal needs of our students while fostering a culture that elevates the college’s profile and advances its mission of building a just and sustainable world,” says Deanna Dannels, dean of NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “I am excited about the vision and experience James brings to this position and look forward to working with him as a member of the college’s leadership teams to enhance student success, effect change and promote academic collaborations that remove barriers and elevate the student experience in an ever-evolving higher education environment.”  

Mulholland joined the college’s faculty in 2012 as an assistant professor of English, advancing to associate professor in 2015 before achieving his current rank in 2021. As a scholar of colonialism, his research centers on the global 18th century and world anglophone literature, particularly works produced within the British Empire.

Mulholland is the author of two books: Before the Raj: Writing Early Anglophone India and Sounding Imperial: Poetic Voice and the Politics of Empire, 1730-1820. He has also written numerous articles for publications such as PMLA, MLQ, ELH as well as The Bloomsbury Handbook of Romanticism in Britain and Asia, 1760-1842 and Cambridge History of Queer American Literature.

In addition, he writes about professional issues in higher education, including the value of the humanities, the development of literary fields, and how to revise dissertations and publish academic books. His articles have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Guardian, Public Books and Profession.

Before joining NC State, Mulholland served as an assistant professor of English at Wheaton College, Massachusetts, and as a visiting assistant professor of English at Connecticut College.

Mulholland holds a Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Virginia.