Karen Nelson named Director of Research Initiatives, Co-Director of CLCS

This promotion formalizes Nelson's current efforts to help faculty and graduate students conceptualize and manage research initiatives and activities, as well as public relations and outreach activities. 

Nelson will continue to coordinate alumni relations and funding efforts, and oversee internal grant requests and external funding proposals both within and beyond the Center. She will also continue to promote the English Department through CLCS initiatives, and, more generally, through the development of and communication about all departmental research endeavors and collaborations. Too, she will still help foster partnerships beyond the department, college, and campus.

Nelson joined the Department as Associate Director of the Center for Literary & Comparative Studies in August 2010. Prior to that, she served as Associate Director for the Center for Renaissance & Baroque Studies from 1999 to 2010. She earned her PhD in early modern literature from the Department in 1998. Nelson received a lifetime achievement award from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, October 2014, and a service to the department award, September 2014, from the College of Arts and Humanities. Nelson currently serves as Director for the Medieval & Early Modern Field Committee at the University of Maryland and as Editor for the Sixteenth Century Journal.