Dear Adelphi Community,
It’s a profound pleasure to share with you, in my first announcement as interim provost, that Nicole C. Rudolph, PhD, has been appointed interim dean of the Adelphi University Honors College. Dr. Rudolph is a valued leader, respected colleague and educator, and a wealth of knowledge—as evidenced by her title of Jeopardy! champion—who will thoughtfully and capably lead the Honors College during the transitional period ahead.
Dr. Rudolph joined Adelphi’s faculty in 2009 as an assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, receiving tenure in 2015 and a joint appointment in the Department of History in 2016. She became director of the International Studies program in 2013, and the academic director of the Honors College in 2018, teaching and advising students and contributing to a wide variety of Honors activities at Adelphi. She later advanced into a dual role supporting Honors student aspirations and engagement, first becoming associate dean for student engagement in 2021 and then adding the directorship of the Office of Prestigious Awards and Fellowships in 2023. Her service to the University includes membership on the Executive Steering Committee for the 2025 (MSCHE) Middle States Self-Study and Reaccreditation Review and past membership on the Faculty Committee on Retention, Tenure and Promotion and on the Contract Negotiating Team for AAUP’s Adelphi chapter.
Prior to joining Adelphi, Dr. Rudolph served as director of the Maison Française Cultural Center at Columbia University, where she worked with an advisory board of business and academic leaders, built relationships with corporate and individual donors, and was responsible for the Center’s budget, staff and cultural and academic events. For two years she was also managing editor of the New York University-published journal French Politics, Culture & Society, overseeing production of three journal issues on deadline each year. She also served as Honors admissions liaison for the University Honors College at the University of Pittsburgh, through which she recruited high-achieving high school students, organized an 800-person annual recruitment event and administered the Chancellor’s Scholarship.
Dr. Rudolph earned a Doctorate in French Studies from New York University, as well as a DEA in Social Sciences (equivalent to MPhil) with Honors from Ecole Normale Superieure / Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in Paris, France, and Master of Arts degrees in French Studies from New York University and French Language and Literature from the University of Pittsburgh. She also completed the Management Development Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University. A prolific author, Dr. Rudolph published At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Homes and the Right to Comfort with Oxford/New York: Berghahn Books, along with numerous refereed journal articles, book chapters and review essays.
As a passionate advocate for honors education, Dr. Rudolph is deeply experienced and well prepared to helm a community of students from nearly all Adelphi majors who exhibit a love of learning and exploring new ideas. I look forward to seeing the many ways that her enthusiastic spirit will impact the Honors College in her time as interim dean. Please join me in congratulating her on this appointment and wishing her success.
Warm regards,
Susan Dinan, PhD
Interim Provost