Joseph Lane Begins Academic Year as New Provost at Bethany

BETHANY, W.Va. – Dr. Joseph Lane, a professor of political science and the founding director of the honors college at Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia, begins the 2017-18 academic year as the new provost and dean of the faculty at Bethany College.

“We conducted a nationwide search for our next academic leader, and we are very excited to have Dr. Lane join our academic community,” said Dr. Tamara Nichols Rodenberg, president of Bethany. “Dr. Lane has substantial experience in higher education, and we believe that he will significantly add to Bethany’s bright and promising future.”

Lane, who has served as the Hawthorne Professor of Politics and Chair of the Department of Politics, Law and International Relations, had been at Emory & Henry for more than 15 years.

“I really wanted to be in a place where I could make a great difference,” says Lane. “A place where you had a fine liberal arts college with a tremendous history that was ready to make a renaissance.”

“We have an incredible faculty at Bethany College and some of their ideas of where their programs are going over the next 5-6 years are thrilling and invigorating,” he added.

Dr. Lane is also the co-editor of three books: “The Deconstitutionalization of America” (Lexington, 2005), “Engaging Nature: Environmentalism and the Political Theory Canon” (The MIT Press, 2014), and “A Political Companion to Marilynne Robinson” (University of Kentucky Press, 2016).

He has published articles and reviews in a number of journals including the American Political Science Review, Review of Politics and Political Theory. From 2008 through 2012, he served as a regular commentator on political affairs for the Encyclopedia Brittanica’s “Smart Talk” blog and published more than 40 essays on political events for that outlet.

Dr. Lane has been active in political science associations serving as President of the American Political Science Association’s (ASPA) Politics, Literature and Film Section; Delegate of APSA to the American Council of Learned Societies and Convener of the Environmental Politics Workshop of the Western Political Science Association. He has also been nominated for the Board of the National Collegiate Honors Council and for the American Council on Education Fellows Program.

A graduate with honors at Hampden-Sydney College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics and Political Science, Lane completed his Ph.D. at Boston College and taught political theory and American government at Hampden-Sydney and Bowdoin College before joining the faculty at Emory & Henry College.

To see a video interview with Dr. Lane, click here.

About Bethany College

Bethany College is located on a picturesque and historic 1,300-acre campus in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia. Founded in 1840, Bethany is the state’s oldest private college.