This June, Benjamin Rifkin started in his post as the college’s new provost and vice president for educational affairs. Rifkin came to IC from the College of New Jersey, where he served as dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. At IC he will be the college’s chief academic and student affairs officer, overseeing Ithaca’s five schools as well as operations ranging from the library, registrar, and international studies to residential life, multicultural affairs, and intercollegiate athletics.

Rifkin’s field of scholarship is Russian and Slavic languages and literatures. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, as well as a second master’s and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He spent two years in the Soviet Union, studying for a semester abroad as an undergraduate at Leningrad University and then working in Moscow for a Soviet publishing house as a translator and for NBC News.