Kate Conley

Kate Conley holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA from the University of Colorado, both in French. Her BA in English is from Harvard University. Dr. Conley was the Edward Tuck Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College, where she served five years as Associate Dean for the Arts & Humanities. After this, she was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at William & Mary from 2012 to 2020, where she oversaw a renewal of the undergraduate curriculum...See more

Kate Conley holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA from the University of Colorado, both in French. Her BA in English is from Harvard University. Dr. Conley was the Edward Tuck Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College, where she served five years as Associate Dean for the Arts & Humanities. After this, she was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at William & Mary from 2012 to 2020, where she oversaw a renewal of the undergraduate curriculum renamed the COLL curriculum (for "College"). During her tenure as Dean, Dr. Conley led the effort in diversity and inclusion and the undergraduate joint-degree program with St. Andrews University in Scotland. New majors and minors were created on her watch, including programs in Native Studies, Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies, and Data Science. She has published three books on the surrealist movement with the University of Nebraska Press, Surrealist Ghostliness (2013), Robert Desnos, Surrealism, and the Marvelous in Everyday Life (2003), and Automatic Woman: The Representation of Woman in Surrealism (1996), as well as two co-edited volumes, Robert Desnos pour l'an 2000, with Marie-Claire Dumas (Gallimard, 2000), and, with Georgiana Colvile, La Femme s'entête: La Part du féminin dans le surréalisme (Lachenal & Ritter, 1998). Dr. Conley is now Chancellor Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at William & Mary, and her current research is on surrealist collections. See less