Professor of American Studies Tim Spears has been a member of the Middlebury faculty since 1990. He received his B. A. in English from Yale University and did his graduate work at Harvard University in the History of American Civilization, receiving his doctoral degree in 1989. At Middlebury, Professor Spears has taught a wide range of classes, including courses on consumer culture, Chicago, and regional and Southern literature. He is the author of 100 Years on the Road: The Traveling Salesman in American Culture (1995), and Chicago Dreaming: Midwesterners and the City, 1871 to 1919 (2005). He is also a Senior Consulting Editor for The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia,a large public history reference guide that Indiana University Press published in 2006. Currently, he is working on a multi-generational history of college football, based on his family's participation in the sport.
Dean Spears has been a member of the Middlebury administration since 1998 when he helped lead the development of Middlebury's Commons system. He has since continued to oversee the College's residential system while serving as Associate Provost and Associate Dean of Faculty. In July of 2004, President Liebowitz appointed him Dean of the College, reinstating an office that was retired in 1994.
Tim Spears
Dean of the College
Meeker House 112
Phone: 802.443.3300
E-mail: spears@middlebury.edu