Interview with Dr. Roger Casey: Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

Authors

Roger Casey, Rollins College
Wenxian Zhang, Rollins CollegeFollow

Document Type

Oral History

Publication Date

5-17-2010

Biography

Roger N. Casey came to Rollins in 2000 and became the Dean of Faculty, in addition to teaching English courses. In 2006, he was confirmed as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. He is also an accomplished writer, actor, director, and speaker.

Casey was born on February 28, 1961, and grew up in the small town of Woodruff, South Carolina. The first member of his family to attend college, he earned his B.A. in English at Furman University before moving on to graduate school at Florida State University, where he received his M.A. in English, as well as his Ph.D. in American Literature. He also studied at the University of London and with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Before arriving at Rollins, Casey served in a number of administrative and teaching positions at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama. In addition, he became a part of the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship, which allowed him to travel to more than sixteen different countries over a four-year period.

Along with Prof. Lisa Tillmann, Casey contributed to the development of the Critical Media and Cultural Studies major, which was offered for the first time in 2007. He has spoken at numerous convocations at Rollins and was even called upon by the University of Florida. His unique pop culture welcome addresses have been popular with students, possibly because not every college administrator will rap Eminem lyrics at the podium. Casey was also involved in creating a Galapagos Seminar for faculty members, which serves as a model for faculty development in the College's internationalization initiative. Before his departure, he and his wife, Robyn C. Allers, also issued The Provost's Challenge in 2010 to help raise money for The Rollins Fund.

Casey's academic interests include theater, literature, post-modernist theory, and the roles of automobiles and the media. His publications include such works as Textual Vehicles: The Automobile in American Literature (Garland, 1997), "Reality Shows in Florida," and "Driving Miss Flannery: Automobiles in O'Connor's Short Stories." He has also given many presentations and lectures including "Dramatic Depictions of Teachers and Students" and "Baby-Boomer Culture."

Recommended Citation

Casey, Roger and Zhang, Wenxian, "Interview with Dr. Roger Casey: Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost" (2010). Oral Histories. 5.
https://scholarship.rollins.edu/oralhist/5