In Memoriam: Susan Dean, M.A. ’68, Ph.D. ’75

Susan Dean, M.A. ’68, Ph.D. ’75, professor emeritus of English, passed away in the company of her loving son Frank in late April in the Pacific Northwest, where she lived after retiring from the College. A Ph.D. alumna of the College, Dean spent her career in Bryn Mawr’s Department of Literatures in English, where she was beloved by colleagues and students alike. She is remembered for her exemplary teaching, her pathbreaking scholarship and curricular innovation, and her kindness and mentorship to generations of students.

As a scholar, Dean helped pioneer the study of American literature at Bryn Mawr and in the larger academic world, contributing significantly to the shape of the field today.

During her Ph.D. career she transitioned from Victorian literature to American studies, focusing on Hardy and Whitman, among others. When she became a faculty member in the English Department in 1976, she was its sole Americanist. Professor Emeritus of English Jane Hedley, who entered Bryn Mawr’s English Ph.D. program with Dean in 1966 and then joined the department’s faculty along with her, recalls Dean’s crucial role in changing the department and the field.

“Over time some of Susan’s most important contributions to the English department were curricular,” Hedley says. “When she joined the department, hers was the only tenure line in American literature; by the time she retired there were three, thanks to her.” More broadly, Dean played a significant role in the transformation of English into the multinational, multilingual, multiethnic field scholars worldwide take for granted today.

Among her most significant impacts in the Bryn Mawr community was her role in teaching in the College Seminar writing program (known today as the Emily Balch Seminars), a foundational Bryn Mawr experience for all first-year students. In particular, for years Dean taught a dedicated section of the course for nontraditional age students in the Katherine E. McBride Scholars program. Longtime colleague and former Associate Professor of English Linda-Susan Beard, one of Dean’s partners in expanding the department’s curriculum, calls her a “stalwart guide for generations of McBride scholars,” who provided critical mentorship and with whom they often formed lasting friendships.

Dean’s impact also stemmed from her dedication to collaboration across roles and a holistic vision of scholarship, mentorship, and institutional change. With McBride Scholar and Tuscarora Nation member Vera Palmer ’95, M.A. ’95, Dean created the Native American Studies Program at the College, which supplemented literature with multiday field trips and invited guest lectures and performances.

Likewise, Helen Rehl ’96 credits Dean with changing the course of her life through a Bryn Mawr education. She became friendly with Dean in 1988 while working as the department’s administrative assistant.

“Both early birds on the job,” Rehl recalls, “we bonded over our shared taste for coffee yogurt. It was during these early morning chats that Susan found out that I never went to college … A staunch promoter of continuing education, her insistence and urging made me apply to become a McBride Scholar. With her and the department faculty’s blessing, I found myself accepted into the McBride Program and through the next eight years, they cheered me on until I finally graduated at the ‘tender age’ of 60 in 1996.”

Underlying all her accomplishments, Dean’s friends and colleagues remember her fundamental, animating kindness. Rehl describes her as “a gentle soul [whose] Quaker principles staunchly guided her through the ups and downs of life, while giving expression to her deep and kind attachment to the McBride Scholars.”

Professor Emeritus of English Peter Briggs notes her pride in having received a fellowship from the Columbia University Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution, for what he terms “her deep commitment to bringing ethical values into her classroom.” Briggs emphasizes her “gentle, often puckish humor, her special kindness to students in need, and her personal adaptability — her pitch-in spirit — balanced by her steadfast allegiance to Quakerly principles.”

An embodiment of the best of Bryn Mawr, Dean’s memory and formidable legacy are grounded in equal measures by her scholarship and her humanity.