Caroline Levander works at the intersection of American culture & higher education innovation.
Levander is Professor of English and Carlson Professor in the Humanities. She has authored six books, five edited collections, and numerous articles on American culture, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Inside Higher Ed, Business Insider, and Forbes, among other venues. Levander is the recipient of international awards and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Huntington Library, and National Humanities Center, among others. She received an IMLS National Leadership Grant to create the Our Americas Archive Partnership. Levander completed a 2017 Fulbright Research Fellow at the University of Exeter as well as a 2016 Senior Fellow at the Freie Universität Graduate School, Berlin. She organized and led the Rockefeller international summit on the Future Global University, and has spoken regularly at national and international summits on the future of higher education in such venues as the Aspen Institute, ASU+GSV, Times Higher Ed, and EdX Global Summit, among many others. Levander completed a 2017 Fulbright Research Fellow at the University of Exeter as well as a 2016 Senior Fellow at the Freie Universität Graduate School, Berlin.
As Vice President for Global Strategy, Dr. Levander is responsible for expanding the university's global impact through the development of new international campuses, academic programs, partnerships, and research collaborations. She has successfully completed the first phase of Rice’s global strategy with the creation of Rice Global Paris, Rice Global India, and Rice Global. She has built Rice Online Learning, which develops online courseware that reaches millions of new learners around the world. Levander has served as Chair and Vice Chair of the Fulbright Association Board of Directors, Coursera Council, EdX/2U Advisory Council, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Venice International University. The ed-tech company that Levander co-founded in 2020 was acquired by Honor Education in 2022, where she is a senior advisor to the company that brings Apple design and engineering experience to digital teaching and learning tools.
Prior administrative appointments at Rice include Director of the Humanities Research Center (2005-2011), Vice Provost, and Vice President for Strategic Initiatives (2011-17).