The Committee on Graduate Studies

Faculty members of the Committee on Graduate Studies serve as advisers to MALS students, attend thesis orals boards, assist with the evaluation of initial and candidacy applications, and set policies and curriculum for the program. Membership in the committee varies from year to year. Members for the 2018–19 academic year include:

Laura Leibman, chair

Professor of English and Humanities
BA 1989 University of California, Davis. MA 1993, PhD 1995 University of California, Los Angeles. Reed College 1995—.
Academic interests: Early American literature and culture, American poetry, poetics and ethnopoetics, Native American literature and culture, postcolonial theory, gender theory, American studies.

Michael Breen

Professor of History and Humanities
BA 1989 University of Chicago. AM 1990, PhD 2000 Brown University. Reed College 2000—.
Academic interests: Old Regime France; medieval and early modern European legal, social, and cultural history; Renaissance Italy.

Jay Dickson

Professor of English and Humanities
AB 1988 Harvard College. PhD 1996 Princeton University. Reed College 1996-1999, 2001–.
Academic interests: The novel, British modernism, Victorian literature, queer studies, postcolonial studies.

Jacqueline Dirks

Cornelia Marvin Pierce Professor of History and Humanities
BA 1982 Reed College. MA, MPhil 1986, PhD 1996 Yale University. Reed College 1991—.
Academic interests: American social and cultural history, United States women's history.

Paul Silverstein

Professor of Anthropology
AB 1992 Princeton University. MA 1994, PhD 1998 University of Chicago. Reed College 2000—.
Academic interests: Race and ethnicity, colonialism and postcoloniality, migration, urbanity, social class, sport, practice theory, historical anthropology, France, North Africa, Middle East.