New Vice-President for FAU

Antje Kley to follow Johanna Haberer

The University Council of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) appointed a new Vice-President at its last meeting. Prof. Dr. Antje Kley will take office as a member of the University Board on 1 October 2012. She will succeed Prof. Johanna Haberer, who has been a member of the University Board since 2006, and has now asked to be relieved of her duties for a stay abroad.

Prof. Dr. Antje Kley has been a member of FAU since September 2006. She was first appointed as Professor for North-American Literature and Cultural Studies and then named Chair of American Studies (Literary Studies) in November 2009. Prof. Kley started her academic career as a research associate at the University of Mannheim with subsequent positions at Bielfeld, Kiel and Erlangen. In 2000, she completed her PhD in American Studies at the University of Mannheim, followed by the habilitation in English and American Literary Studies in Kiel. Her academic achievements earned her scholarships by the renowned Fulbright Commission, the Postgraduate Research Grants Programme of Baden-Württemberg and the German National Academic Foundation. In 2011, Prof. Kley spent three months as a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (USA); for August 2012, she has been invited as a Fellow at Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ (USA).

“Antje Kley has proven that she is an excellent researcher; moreover, she is highly popular with students and has over 10 years’ experience in academic self-administration,” says FAU’s President Prof. Dr. Karl-Dieter Grüske. “I am happy that we could win her over as a Vice-President and I am sure that with her, the two important fields of teaching and studying, will be in very good hands. Her unanimous appointment shows the the University Council shares my opinion.”

The new Vice-President’s portfolio will include the further development of degree programmes, quality assurance in teaching and studying and the conception of teacher-training. At the beginning of this year, the management of the “Teaching Quality Pact”, a project funded by the Federal Ministry for Education with 11.5 million euros, was added to this portfolio. “This project shows that FAU belongs to Germany’s top universities, both with regard to research and teaching,” states Prof. Grüske. “Our success in this competition is one of Prof. Haberer’s major achievements. In her six years as a Prorector and Vice-President, she has made incredible contributions to improve studying conditions and to develop and refine degree programmes. It is all but impossible to give a comprehensive list of Prof. Haberer’s numerous achievements. Therefore, by way of example, I would like to cite the switch to the Bachelor/Master system, in which she played a highly influential role, the establishment of our QA system, the accreditation of the degree programmes, dealing with the double intake of grammar school graduates after the change in the Bavarian school system as well as the distribution of tuition fees. Some of the biggest challenges in the organisation of teaching and studying at FAU are thus closely connected to Johanna Haberer’s name.”

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uni | media service | news No. 134/2012 on 13.6.2012