Joe Wilferth

Dr. Wilferth proudly serves as the Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs. As such, he serves as the chief academic and student life officer of the University. He provides leadership and support for the University’s faculty and staff, and he focuses on academic and student life in strategic planning and implementation, especially for curricular development, faculty resource planning, student development, academic success, enrollment, retention, and resource growth.

He coordinates the work of an amazing team that includes the University’s Associate Provosts, Director of International Study, Director of Distance Education, Director of the Mickel Library, University Registrar, Dean of the Converse College for Women, Dean of the School of the Arts, Dean of Education and Graduate Studies, and Dean of the School of Humanities, Sciences, and Business.

His teaching and research interests intersect to include social movement theory, the environmental movement in the US, environmental literature, disability studies, and visual culture. Dr. Wilferth’s peer-reviewed scholarship appears in the journals Enculturation, Computers and Composition Online, Southern Indiana Review, Kairos (A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy), Text Technology, Christianity and Literature, the AAC&U’s Liberal Education, and more.

An academic at heart, Dr. Wilferth knows the transformative power of a four-year degree. The attainment of that degree does, as Converse’s mission states so well, empower students to serve as transformative leaders in their respective communities who see clearly, decide wisely, and act justly.