Eric Link
- VPAA / Provost, Academic Affairs
Contact Info
- Email: eric.link@UND.edu
- Office: 701.777.2167
Office Address
Carnegie Hall Room 202
250 Centennial Drive Stop 8176
Grand Forks, ND 58202
Biography
Eric Carl Link joined the University of North Dakota as provost and vice president for academic affairs in July 2021.
Prior to coming to the University of North Dakota, Link served on the leadership teams of several universities. He served as provost and senior vice president for academic and student affairs at the University of Houston Downtown, a comprehensive public university of 15,000 students in the heart of Houston, Texas. Before that, Link was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Purdue University Fort Wayne, and before that he was associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and chair of the Department of English at the University of Memphis. He also served as the head of the Department of Language and Literature at North Georgia College and State University, in addition to a variety of other administrative roles.
Link earned his Ph.D. in American literature from Purdue University. An internationally recognized and award winning teacher and scholar, Link’s teaching and research fields span the field of American literature, with specializations in both 19th-Century American Literature and Science Fiction. He is the author of four books, including The Vast and Terrible Drama: American Literary Naturalism in the Late Nineteenth Century (2004), Understanding Philip K. Dick (2010), Neutral Ground: New Traditionalism and the American Romance Controversy (1999), and Crosscurrents: Reading in the Disciplines (2012). In addition, he is the editor of six volumes, including The Cambridge History of Science Fiction (2019), The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction (2015), Taming the Bicycle: Essays, Stories, and Sketches by Mark Twain (2009), and two volumes for the Critical Insights series (one on Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage (2010), and one on Herman Melville (2012)), and he is the co-editor, with Donald Pizer, of the Norton Critical Edition of The Red Badge of Courage (2008). He also founded and edited, with Steve Frye, the journal ALN: The American Literary Naturalism Newsletter. Aside from these volumes, Dr. Link has published over fifty essays on topics ranging across the field of American literary studies. His scholarship has won multiple awards, and in Spring 2015 he was presented with the Distinguished Research Award in Humanities from the University of Memphis. He was also named the Distinguished Professor of Teaching and Learning at North Georgia College in 2007, where he held an endowed chair from 1999-2008.
Link has twice served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar, most recently at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland (2012), and before that in Lutsk, Ukraine, where he taught American literature and consulted on program and curriculum development at Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University (2008). He has also lectured and presented on a variety of research topics at universities in China, Iceland, and England.
With a life-long commitment to the mission of the modern university, Dr. Link has been a strong advocate for the ongoing vitality of higher education in the United States. His vision for higher education is rooted in this conviction, and through an administrative career spanning three decades he has worked side-by-side with faculty, staff, and students to provide quality academic programming, innovative student-centered educational experiences, and strong ties with local and regional communities.
Ph.D. Purdue University (1995)
19th-Century American Literature: Primary Field
20th-Century American Lit: Secondary Field
M.A. Southwest Missouri State University (1991)
English Language and Literature
B.S. Evangel University, Missouri (1988), summa cum laude
Communications
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
University of North Dakota, July 2021-Present
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs
University of Houston Downtown, January 2019-June 2021
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Purdue University Fort Wayne
2015-2019
Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Memphis
2014-2015
Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Memphis
2013-2014
Chair, Department of English, University of Memphis
2008-2013 [Rank: Full Professor with Tenure]
Fulbright Senior Scholar, University of Fribourg
Fribourg, Switzerland, April-May 2011
Fulbright Senior Scholar, Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University
Lutsk, Ukraine, April-May 2008
Hugh Shott Professor of English, North Georgia College & State University
1998-2008
Department Head, Department of Language and Literature
North Georgia College & State University, 1999-2000
Professor of English, North Georgia College & State University
Assistant 1996-2000; Associate 2000-2006; Full 2006-2008
My research specializations fall into two semi-related categories: American literary naturalism and science fiction. In both of these areas, my interests and writings span aesthetic theory, genre theory, literary history, and the relationships between science, philosophy, and literature.
Sample Publications
Authored Books
Link, Eric Carl. The Cambridge Introduction to American Literary Naturalism.
Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming.
Link, Eric Carl, and Steven Frye. Crosscurrents: Reading in the Disciplines. Boston:
Pearson, 2012.
Link, Eric Carl. Understanding Philip K. Dick. Columbia, South Carolina:
University of South Carolina Press, 2010.
Link, Eric Carl. The Vast and Terrible Drama: American Literary Naturalism in the
Late Nineteenth Century. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.
Featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 30, 2004.
Thompson, G. R. and Eric Carl Link. Neutral Ground: New Traditionalism and the
American Romance Controversy. Louisiana State University Press, 1999.
267 pages. Nominated by LSU for the Christian Gauss Award and the Jean-Pierre Barricelli Book Prize. Listed as one of the “five favorite” books of 1999 by a columnist for The Boston Globe.
Edited Books
Canavan, Gerry, and Eric Carl Link, eds. The Cambridge History of Science Fiction.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2019.
Link, Eric Carl, and Gerry Canavan, eds. The Cambridge Companion to American
Science Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2015.
Link, Eric Carl, ed. Critical Insights: Herman Melville. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press,
2012. 16 Original Essays, Edited and Introduced by Eric Carl Link.
Link, Eric Carl, ed. Critical Insights: The Red Badge of Courage. Ipswich, MA: Salem
Press, 2010.
Link, Eric Carl, ed. Mark Twain. Taming the Bicycle: Essays, Stories, and Sketches.
New York: Barnes & Noble Press, 2009.
Pizer, Donald, and Eric Carl Link, eds. Norton Critical Edition of Stephen Crane’s Red
Badge of Courage, 4th edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.
Journals Edited
Link, Eric Carl, ed. ALN: The American Literary Naturalism Newsletter
[ISSN 1933-0103] Founder and Editor. 2006+ [First Issue: October 2006]
Indexed in the MLA Bibliography, archived in EBSCO
Link, Eric Carl, ed. Studies in American Naturalism. Volume 8, no. 2. Summer 2013.
[A special issue of the journal dedicated to the connections between American
literary naturalism and science fiction.]
Frye, Steven, and Eric Carl Link, eds. Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism.
Volumes 39-40. 2006-2007. [Special double-issue dedicated to the career and
work of noted Edgar Allan Poe scholar G. R. Thompson.]
Novel
Link, Eric Carl. The Forest Primeval. 400 typescript pages.
Unpublished. Occasionally seeking representation when time permits.
Other Publications
Link, Eric Carl. “The Snow Man.” Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism 39-40 (2006-2007):
153. Creative non-fiction.
Link, Eric Carl. “Lanier Media Page.” Lanier Magazine 2.1 (Fall 2005): 60-61.
Reviewed in this issue:
Richard Adams Watership Down; Richard Matheson I Am Legend
Sigur Ros Agaetis Bryjun; Morphine Cure for Pain
Terry Gilliam Brazil; Woody Allen Annie Hall
2015 Distinguished Research Award in Humanities, University of Memphis
2011 Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award (nominee)
2009 Course Redesign Fellowship Award and Grant, $3000
2006-2007 NGCSU Distinguished Professor of Teaching and Learning
2003 Excellence in Teaching Award for Bringing Scholarship into the Classroom
2001 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, SMSU English Department
2000 Victor J. Emmett Jr. Memorial Award
[Presented by The Midwest Quarterly for the best literary essay of the year]
Awarded NGCSU Teaching Excellence Grant, 1999
Nominated by NGCSU for the 1999 Regents Teaching Excellence Award
Graduate Literary Criticism Award (First Place), 63rd Annual
Literary Awards Competition, Purdue University, 1994
Eric is married to Dr. Laura Link, a professor of Teaching & Leadership in the University of North Dakota College of Education and Human Development. They have four children—Sarah, Nathaniel, Natalie, and Nolan—and two grandchildren, Finley and Rhae. They also have a dog (Tilly) and a cat (Shadow), both rescues, who keep things lively in their home in Grand Forks.