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Katherine Rowe
Katherine Rowe
Katherine Rowe
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Katherine Anandi Rowe is an American scholar of Renaissance literature and media history. She was named the twenty-eighth president of the College of William & Mary on February 20, 2018.[1] She began her service on July 2, 2018 succeeding W. Taylor Reveley III, who had served as president since 2008 and is the first woman to be named president.[2] After seven months in office, Rowe was formally inaugurated on February 8, 2019 as part of the university's annual Charter Day ceremony.[3]

Key Information

Career

[edit]

Rowe, a Shakespearean scholar, is recognized for her work in the digital innovation of the liberal arts. As the guest editor of the Shakespeare Quarterly's special issue on New Media, Rowe led the first open review of a traditional humanities journal on the web. The New York Times described the special issue as "trailblazing." [4] In a 2020 special report, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education highlighted Rowe as one of 35 leading women in higher education.[5]

Rowe served as provost and dean of the faculty of Smith College from 2014 to 2018. While at Smith, she served as the interim vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this role, Rowe is credited[by whom?] with transforming Smith's liberal arts curriculum and increasing diversity in faculty hiring.[6] During her tenure as provost, Smith College developed "one of the first statistical and data sciences majors at a liberal arts college.”[7][8] Rowe also oversaw the creation of Smith College's first Massive Open Online Course.[9]

Rowe was an English professor at Yale University from 1992 to 1998 before moving to Bryn Mawr College, where she stayed from 1998 to 2014. She was the director for the Tri-College Digital Humanities Initiative, a coalition of faculty, students and staff from Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges. Rowe directed the Mellon Tri-College Faculty Forum, a group supporting collaboration between the three colleges’ faculty members.[10] She is also the co-founder and former chief executive officer of Luminary Digital Media, an organization that created reading apps for iPadOS in partnership with the Folger Shakespeare Library.[11]

Rowe (seated, green sash) at the College of William & Mary's 2023 homecoming parade

Rowe and her husband Bruce Jacobson co-founded the nonprofit Boston Ultimate Disc Alliance. She also co-founded the Carleton College women's Ultimate team. Rowe was a World Ultimate Club Finalist and a Women's National Finalist.[12] She has served as an Ultimate coach for more than a decade.[13] Rowe met her husband, Jacobson, through Ultimate.[14]

Rowe received a bachelor's degree in English and American literature from Carleton College in 1984. She earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Harvard University. Mid-career, Rowe completed graduate work in Cinema and Media Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She has received of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Rowe also served as President [15] of the Shakespeare Association of America and Associate General Editor of The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Cambridge. She also served on Harvard University's Board of Overseers’ Visiting Committee of the Library, and on the Executive Committee of the American Council of Learned Societies. Rowe has been a member of the Modern Language Association, International Shakespeare Association and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.[16] She was inducted into William & Mary's Omicron Delta Kappa—The National Leadership Honor Society—in 2018.

Rowe and Jacobson have two adult children.[17]

Selected works

[edit]
  • New Wave Shakespeare on Screen with Thomas Cartelli (Polity Press, 2007) ISBN 978-0745633923
  • Reading the Early Modern Passions: Essays in the Cultural History of Emotion (Penn Press, 2004) ISBN 978-0812218725
  • Dead Hands: Fictions of Agency, Renaissance to Modern (Stanford UP, 1999) ISBN 978-0804733854

References

[edit]
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Katherine Rowe

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Katherine Anandi Rowe is an American academic administrator and scholar of Renaissance literature and media history who has served as the 28th president of the College of William & Mary since July 1, 2018. She is the first woman to hold the position in the university's 325-year history and has been recognized for advancing digital innovation in higher education, including directing collaborative digital humanities initiatives across multiple institutions. Prior to William & Mary, Rowe served as provost and dean of the faculty at Smith College, where she oversaw academic operations and emphasized interdisciplinary approaches to liberal arts education. As president, she has led the development of strategic plans focused on entrepreneurship, career pathways, and integrating technology with traditional scholarship, while also serving on boards addressing workforce development in Virginia. A former coach of championship ultimate frisbee teams, Rowe brings a background in athletics to her administrative role, promoting holistic student development.

Early Life and Education

Family Background and Early Interests

Katherine Rowe graduated from Carleton College in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in English and American literature, after initially considering a major in chemistry during her undergraduate years. Rowe demonstrated an early and sustained interest in Ultimate Frisbee, co-founding the women's team at Carleton College. She later co-founded the nonprofit Boston Ultimate Disc Alliance and coached the sport for over a decade, competing at high levels including as a World Ultimate Club Finalist and Women’s Nationals Finalist. This involvement highlights her engagement with team-based athletics and community-building activities from her college period onward.

Academic Training

Katherine Rowe received a degree in English from , graduating in 1984. Her undergraduate studies emphasized English and , laying the foundation for her later specialization in texts. Rowe then attended for graduate training, earning a and a in English and from 1986 to 1992. Her doctoral research centered on Shakespearean themes, particularly fictions of agency and physiological possession in , reflecting a rigorous engagement with historical texts and performance history. In addition to her Harvard degrees, Rowe undertook graduate coursework in Cinema and Media Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, broadening her expertise to include intersections between literature and visual media. This supplementary training informed her subsequent scholarly interests in media evolution from print to digital eras.

Academic Career

Positions at Yale and Bryn Mawr

Rowe commenced her academic career as an Assistant Professor of English at Yale University, serving from 1992 to 1998. During this tenure, she focused on teaching and research in early modern literature, including works by Shakespeare, Milton, and Spenser. In 1998, Rowe joined Bryn Mawr College as a member of the English faculty, remaining there for 16 years until 2014. She advanced to the role of department chair and directed the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center for Leadership and Public Engagement, where she oversaw programs aimed at developing student leadership skills and civic involvement. At Bryn Mawr, Rowe contributed to curricular reforms, integrating digital humanities and interdisciplinary approaches into English studies, while maintaining a teaching load in Renaissance poetry and drama. Her administrative efforts emphasized experiential learning and public engagement initiatives.

Provost Role at Smith College

Katherine Rowe was appointed Provost and Dean of the Faculty at on April 14, 2014, effective July 1, 2014, succeeding Carol Christ. In this role, she served as the chief academic officer, overseeing academic strategy and planning, all academic departments and programs, faculty development, and enrollment management. Her selection emphasized her background in curricular innovation, , and commitment to women's , drawing from her prior experience directing initiatives at . During her tenure, which ended in June 2018 upon her departure to the , Rowe led several key academic initiatives. She spearheaded the establishment of one of the first statistical and data sciences majors at a , enhancing interdisciplinary quantitative training. Rowe also launched a curriculum to foster innovative problem-solving among students and served as the academic lead for a $100 million redesign of Smith’s main library, integrating modern learning spaces. Rowe prioritized faculty development and diversity, overseeing efforts that greatly increased diversity in hiring across academic departments. She temporarily served as interim for inclusion, diversity, and equity, addressing incidents such as the use of racially charged language in a by coordinating responses with relevant deans. These actions aligned with Smith College's institutional focus on equity in a women's liberal arts environment, though institutional sources highlight them as advancements without independent external verification of long-term impacts.

Presidency at William & Mary

Appointment and Early Leadership

On February 20, 2018, the College of William & Mary's Board of Visitors unanimously elected Katherine A. Rowe, then provost of , as the institution's 28th president, marking the first time a held the position in the college's 325-year history. She succeeded W. Taylor Reveley III, who retired after serving as president since 2008. Rowe's selection emphasized her expertise in digital innovation and liberal arts leadership, drawing from her prior roles in higher education administration. Rowe assumed office on July 1, 2018, and was formally sworn in as president on July 2, 2018, by Governor during a ceremony in the , the college's oldest academic structure. In her initial months, she prioritized engaging the campus community through direct outreach, expressing intent to consult students, faculty, alumni, staff, and external stakeholders to assess institutional strengths and priorities. Early in her tenure, Rowe initiated "Thinking Forward," a series of university-wide discussions aimed at exploring the future of knowledge production and higher education amid technological changes. These forums sought to foster generative dialogue on adapting to emerging challenges, reflecting her background in and . This approach laid groundwork for subsequent , including the initial phases of Vision 2026, developed through inclusive, multi-year processes involving broad input.

Strategic Initiatives and Achievements

Rowe led the development of William & Mary's strategic plan, Vision 2026: Investing in the of the Nation, through an inclusive multi-year process involving community input to prioritize , , and career preparation. The plan emphasizes collaborative intellectual discovery and positions the university as a leader in integrating with sciences and innovation. Under Rowe's presidency, William & Mary established the School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics, enhancing interdisciplinary and education in . The university achieved Carnegie Classification's R1 status as a very high activity , reflecting increased output and doctoral production. Rowe also spearheaded the university's first sustainability plan and the creation of an entrepreneurship hub to foster innovation among students. Fundraising reached record levels during Rowe's tenure, including over $240 million in 2025—the highest in the institution's 332-year history—and completion of a $1.04 billion campaign that strengthened ties and endowed priorities. Enrollment initiatives expanded national through targeted admissions, , scholarships, and counselor engagement, supported by a major gift from alumnus Darpan . Rowe coordinated an effective response in partnership with local authorities, maintaining campus operations while prioritizing health.

Controversies and Criticisms

In September 2020, President Rowe approved the elimination of seven varsity athletic programs—men's and women's swimming, men's and women's gymnastics, men's indoor and outdoor track and field, and women's volleyball—citing projected annual losses exceeding $3.2 million due to COVID-19 impacts. The announcement drew widespread criticism from faculty, students, alumni, and athletes for lacking transparency and prioritizing revenue-generating sports like football and basketball, prompting alumni donation withdrawals and threats of a class-action lawsuit alleging Title IX violations by affected women's teams. Compounding the backlash, the athletics department's press release was found to have copied verbatim filler text from a similar Stanford University announcement, including generic achievements like conference titles, which was criticized as disrespectful to stakeholders and indicative of poor institutional integrity. Rowe responded by expressing regret, accepting accountability for the communication failures, facilitating the resignation of Athletic Director Samantha Huge amid a faculty no-confidence push, and appointing an interim director with a mandate for stakeholder engagement and financial review. In September 2022, 214 William & Mary faculty members signed an to Rowe highlighting a growing "distance" between the administration and faculty, criticizing insufficient cooperation on key initiatives and resource allocation decisions. The letter specifically opposed two administrative priorities as inefficient uses of and taxpayer funds, urging greater . Rowe's April 2024 decision to reject a student calling for the college to Israeli academic institutions—passed by a 62% —drew criticism from organizers who described her response as "callous and undemocratic," arguing it dismissed legitimate campus discourse on as fringe discord. In her statement, Rowe cited legal risks under Virginia's 2023 anti- law, potential threats to academic partnerships and federal funding, and the need to protect free expression without endorsing , while affirming opposition to antisemitism and support for . This stance aligned with the college's emphasis on political neutrality, as Rowe later declined to sign a faculty resolution on related campus tensions in April 2025, prioritizing institutional voice over external advocacy.

Scholarship and Publications

Key Research Themes

Katherine Rowe's scholarship centers on Renaissance literature, with a particular emphasis on representations of agency and embodiment in early modern texts. Her seminal work, Dead Hands: Fictions of Agency, Renaissance to Modern (Stanford University Press, 1999), examines the literary trope of the "dead hand"—a detached or paralyzed hand symbolizing disrupted agency—from Shakespearean drama to 19th-century American fiction, including works by Webster and Hawthorne. This motif, Rowe argues, interrogates themes of disability, gothic horror, and the limits of human control in narratives spanning early modern English plays to post-Enlightenment novels, drawing on historical contexts like legal doctrines of mortmain (dead-hand ownership). Rowe extends her analysis to Shakespearean tragedy, focusing on disfigurement, death, and feminine agency, as seen in her review of Shakespeare's Feminine Endings: Disfiguring Death in the Tragedies, which critiques portrayals of bodily fragmentation and emotional extremity in plays like King Lear and Macbeth. Her contributions to Reading the Early Modern Passions: Essays in the Cultural History of Emotion (co-edited, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) explore affective responses in Renaissance drama, linking physiological theories of humors to textual representations of rage and grief in authors such as Spenser and Milton. In later research, Rowe shifted toward media history and , investigating how Shakespearean texts transition across formats from print to screen and digital platforms. Co-authoring New Wave Shakespeare on Screen (Polity Press, 2007) with Thomas Cartelli, she analyzes post-1990s film , emphasizing experimental that challenge traditional staging. Her essay "Crowd-sourcing Shakespeare: Screen Work and Screen Play in " (Shakespeare Studies, 2010) probes virtual environments for collaborative performance, highlighting user-generated that blend rhetoric with digital interactivity. This theme reflects Rowe's broader interest in media , from analog to networked forms, informed by her training in drama.

Selected Works and Contributions

Rowe's seminal monograph Dead Hands: Fictions of Agency, to Modern, published by in 1999, traces the evolution of motif—a disembodied or ghostly hand—as a literary device symbolizing agency, intention, and bodily autonomy. The work spans drama by authors such as Shakespeare and Webster, extending to Anglo-American by writers including Maupassant, Le Fanu, and , while contextualizing the motif against shifts in religious imagery, industrialism, and from the 16th to 19th centuries. In collaboration with Thomas Cartelli, Rowe co-authored New Wave Shakespeare on Screen (Polity Press, 2007), which dissects post-1990s film adaptations of , including experimental "new wave" productions that blend traditional staging with cinematic innovation. The book introduces analytical frameworks for interpreting these adaptations as cultural processes, addressing how they rewind temporal and like Hamlet's soliloquies or collide historical contexts in films by directors such as Branagh and beyond. Rowe co-edited Reading the Early Modern Passions: Essays in the Cultural History of Emotion (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), a collection exploring emotional representations in Renaissance texts through interdisciplinary lenses, including physiological and cultural analyses of self-governance in works like Davenant's revisions of Macbeth. Her scholarly influence extends to editorial roles, including service on the board of Shakespeare Quarterly and principal investigator for digital humanities projects such as the Folger Shakespeare Library's F21 initiative on early modern texts. As past president of the Shakespeare Association of America (circa 2019–2021), Rowe advanced organizational priorities in media history and performance studies, fostering research on Shakespeare's adaptation across eras.

Personal Life and Other Activities

Family and Athletics Involvement

Katherine Rowe is married to Bruce Jacobson, with whom she has two adult children, Daniel and Beah. The family maintains strong ties to athletics, with Jacobson having served as a play-by-play announcer for their children's soccer and games. Rowe has extensive personal involvement in Ultimate Frisbee, spanning playing and coaching over more than a decade. As a competitive player, she reached finalist positions in the World Ultimate Club Championships and Women's Nationals. She co-founded the Ultimate Disc Alliance, a promoting the sport, and established the women's Ultimate team at during her undergraduate years. In coaching, Rowe led the girls' team in to state championships in 2009 and 2010. Her engagement with continued into her presidency at William & Mary, including hosting reunions and integrating the sport into campus events. Growing up in a , Rowe credits sports, particularly Ultimate, with providing stability and community amid frequent relocations.

References

  1. https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2018/28th.php
  2. https://www.smith.edu/news-events/news/smith-appoints-katherine-rowe-provost-and-dean-faculty
  3. https://www.smith.edu/president-kathleen-mccartney/letters/2017-18/rowe-named-wm-president
  4. https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-a-rowe
  5. https://www.conference-board.org/bio/katherine-rowe
  6. https://flathatnews.com/2018/08/22/another-title-new-identity-college-president-katherine-rowe-shares-life-lessons-from-various-career-achievements/
  7. https://www.wm.edu/offices/president/about/
  8. https://www.facebook.com/groups/364928930277026/posts/1252394821530428/
  9. https://www.carleton.edu/alumni/council/awards/recipients-2019/
  10. https://www.theeduledger.com/awards-honors/top-women/2020/article/15295119/dr-katherine-rowe
  11. https://sites.psu.edu/humanitiesda/2014/01/20/interview-with-katherine-rowe/
  12. https://michelegenthon.com/katherine-a-rowe/
  13. https://flathatnews.com/2018/02/20/board-of-visitors-elects-katherine-rowe-to-be-colleges-28th-president/
  14. https://wiareport.com/2018/02/college-william-mary-names-first-woman-leader-325-year-history/
  15. https://www.brynmawr.edu/bulletin/not-afraid-be-first
  16. https://education.wm.edu/centers/sli/events/conferences/la-conference/featured-speakers/katherine-rowe.php
  17. https://scrc-kb.libraries.wm.edu/katherine-rowe
  18. https://thesophian.com/2017-10-20-administration-responds-to-use-of-racially-charged-language-in-class/
  19. https://flathatnews.com/2018/02/26/rowe-a-positive-change-for-the-college/
  20. https://www.wtkr.com/2018/02/20/william-mary-announces-katherine-rowe-as-28th-president
  21. https://law.wm.edu/news/stories/2018/william-mary-announces-katherine-rowe-as-28th-president.php
  22. https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2018/katherine-a.-rowe-sworn-in-as-wms-28th-president.php
  23. https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2018/katherine-a.-rowe-to-be-sworn-in-as-28th-president-july-2.php
  24. https://magazine.wm.edu/online-exclusives/looking-forward-a-qa-with-president-katherine-a-rowe.php
  25. https://www.wm.edu/sites/strategicplanning/presidential-updates/
  26. https://www.firstlady.virginia.gov/womengirls/sisterhood-spotlight/previous-sisterhood-spotlights/2023-sisterhood-spotlights/katherine-a-rowe.html
  27. http://virginiabusiness.com/education-2025-katherine-a-rowe/
  28. https://news.wm.edu/2025/07/24/an-extraordinary-year-for-william-mary/
  29. https://forthebold.wm.edu/
  30. https://news.wm.edu/2025/09/24/expanding-william-marys-national-reach/
  31. https://www.streetinsider.com/PRNewswire/Gift%2Bto%2Bexpand%2BWilliam%2Band%2Bamp%253B%2BMarys%2Benrollment%2Breach/25369093.html
  32. https://www.pilotonline.com/2020/10/06/william-mary-athletic-director-resigning-after-controversial-decision-to-cut-7-sports/
  33. https://swimswam.com/william-mary-president-acknowledges-regret-over-press-release-copying/
  34. https://flathatnews.com/2022/09/27/214-faculty-members-sign-open-letter-to-president-rowe-regarding-cooperation-among-administration-and-faculty/
  35. https://flathatnews.com/2024/04/02/president-rowe-states-that-college-will-not-boycott-israel-organizers-collective-releases-statement-in-response/
  36. https://www.dailypress.com/2025/04/29/william-mary-adopts-resolution-in-support-of-students-and-faculty/
  37. https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/dead-hands
  38. https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Hands-Fictions-Agency-Renaissance/dp/0804733856
  39. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/31670/summary
  40. https://www.pennpress.org/9780812218725/reading-the-early-modern-passions/
  41. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/New%2BWave%2BShakespeare%2Bon%2BScreen-p-9780745633930
  42. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/engl_pubs/24/
  43. https://mcpress.media-commons.org/shakespearequarterlyperformance/author/krowe/
  44. https://www.wm.edu/offices/president/about/first-gentleman/
  45. https://ultiworld.com/author/krowe/
  46. https://www.instagram.com/p/DP9X5Q3DS-P/
  47. https://www.virginiansofinterest.com/2164412/episodes/16310541-e32-trailblazing-academia-and-empowering-students-dr-katherine-rowe-on-leading-william-mary-into-the-21st-century
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