About Dr. Alvin Goldfarb President and Professor Emeritus (WIU)

Alvin (Al) Goldfarb is president emeritus and professor emeritus of theatre at Western Illinois University. During his tenure as the university's 10th president, Western received significant recognition in the rankings published in U.S. News and World Report and Princeton Review. Western's first doctoral program as well as undergraduate programs in Nursing and Engineering were approved. Construction of the new Quad Cities campus began during his tenure (with a donation from John Deere of a building on the Mississippi riverfront), and the initial approval for the new Performing Arts Center came during his presidency. The university's Multicultural Center and Alfred D. Boyer Stadium were constructed, and significant renovations of the Student Recreation Center and of the student seating area at Hanson Field were completed. The University also drafted a comprehensive strategic plan and completed a successful capital campaign during his presidency.

As an administrator in higher education, Dr. Goldfarb also served as provost, dean, department chair, and professor of theatre during his 25-year tenure at Illinois State University, as well as managing director of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

Dr. Goldfarb is the coauthor of Living Theatre, Theatre: The Lively Art, and The Theatre Experience with Edwin Wilson and Megan Geigner, as well as coeditor of The Anthology of Living Theatre with Edwin Wilson. He is also the coeditor, with Rebecca Rovit, of Theatrical Performance during the Holocaust: Texts, Documents, Memoirs , which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Currently, he serves as the lead scholar for the online Holocaust Theatre Catalog, which is hosted at the University of Miami's Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies. His interest in this area was inspired by his parents, who were survivors of the Holocaust. Dr. Goldfarb has also published numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals and anthologies.

Dr. Goldfarb served as a member of the Illinois Arts Council, the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education, the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee, which recognizes excellence in the Chicago theatre, and the board of Chicago's Congo Square Theatre. He received service awards from the Illinois Theatre Association, as well as from the American College Theatre Festival. Dr. Goldfarb also received an Alumni Achievement Award from the CUNY Graduate Center's Alumni Association and was inducted into the Hunter College Alumni Hall of Fame.

Dr. Goldfarb received his Ph.D. in Theatre History from the City University of New York Graduate Center, a master's degree from Hunter College, and a bachelor's degree from Queens College.