Karen Tidmarsh

Karen Tidmarsh graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1971, having majored in English. She then taught high school English at Germantown Friends and Shipley School in Pennsylvania. Her academic pursuits then took her to the University of Virginia to work on her Ph.D. in English where she specialized in the nineteenth century novel. She spent one year at the University of Cambridge in England researching her dissertation on George Eliot. She has been working at Bryn Mawr, advising students and teaching, since 1979. She began her career in the Dean's Office as an Assistant Dean, served as Associate Director of Admissions, and Associate Dean before becoming Dean of the Undergraduate College in 1990. Her research interests include the interplay between science and art in nineteenth century culture and nineteenth and twentieth century women's travel writing.

As Dean of the Undergraduate College, Dean Tidmarsh is concerned about the quality of students' educational experience, both in its academic and non-academic dimensions. She chairs the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Academic Honor Board. She also oversees the academic and personal advising which goes on in the Dean's Office, as well as the Registrar's Office, Career Development, the Health Center and Counseling Office, and Athletics and Physical Education. She and others in her office also work very closely with the offices of residential life, international student advising, and student social programming. She advises students whose surnames begin with the letter "S."