Andrew van der Vlies is Dean of the School of Humanities in Adelaide University’s College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities, where he is also Professor of Modern Literary Studies. Previously, he served as Interim Head of the School of Humanities and as Deputy Dean People and Culture in the Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics at the University of Adelaide, and taught for two decades in the UK, most recently as Professor of Contemporary Literature and Postcolonial Studies at Queen Mary University of London.
Andrew has experience of leadership during significant institutional change through his involvement in the merger resulting in Adelaide University, where he continues to be involved in managing curriculum renovation, fostering workplace culture, and developing new models of governance. He believes in leadership through credible intellectual role-modelling, sustained mentorship (in both directions), and consultative strategic planning.
A graduate of Rhodes University, South Africa, and the University of Oxford, Andrew’s research is interdisciplinary by nature, with methodological investments in intellectual history, print cultures, literary criticism, postcolonial, gender and sexuality, and affect studies, and visual art. He has published widely, including monographs or edited or co-edited collections from Oxford, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Yale University Presses. He has grants from the ARC, the UK’s AHRC, British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, and from the Mellon Foundation, and held fellowships from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa.
