Fraser named chair, Foreign Languages and Literatures

Benjamin Fraser was named chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in ECU’s Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Science. Fraser assumed the role July 1, replacing John Stevens, who served the department as interim chair since January 2011.

Fraser

Fraser said he felt fortunate to step into his new role for a department that “boasts a talented faculty who are excelling in all three areas of productivity: teaching, research and service. It is really incredible.”  He said one of his top priorities is to invest further in the existing strength of the department.

“One of the things I’m most enthusiastic about is the opportunity to be part of a large department with so many different language and culture areas,” he said.

“With Classics (including both Latin and Greek), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish, we enjoy a very stimulating intellectual environment; a strong global sense of culture that you just don’t find in departments shaped around individual language and culture groups.”

Formerly with the Department of Hispanic Studies at the College of Charleston, Fraser earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Hispanic literature from the University of Arizona. He holds a B.A. in anthropology and Spanish from the University of Virginia.

Fraser is the founding/executive editor of the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, senior editor of the Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, associate editor of Hispania and co-editor of the Hispanic Urban Studies book series.

For additional information, contact Fraser at 252-328-0104 or fraserb14@ecu.edu.

— Lacey Gray, Thomas Harriot College of Arts & Sciences