joe urgo is interim provost at the university of north carolina asheville a former senior fellow with the association of american colleges and universities dr urgo served as president of st marys college of maryland from 20102013 dr urgo served as dean of faculty at hamilton college 20062010 and chair of the department of english at the university of mississippi 20002006 he rose through the faculty ranks at bryant university 19892000 and held a mellon postdoctoral fellowship at vanderbilt university 19861989 dr urgo has a phd from brown university in american civilization an mals from wesleyan university and a ba from haverford collegedr urgo has supported broad access to education in the liberal arts and sciences speaking and writing often on issues of access and affordability joe and lesley urgo have been strong advocates for the natural beauty of the campus and under lesleys volunteer efforts established the st marys college arboretumurgo created mississippis first mfa program he also earned a grant for the university from the mississippi humanities council for a creative writing program at marshall county corrections facility for the spring term 2009 urgo was acting president at hamilton college in central new york from 20062010 he served as chief academic officer at hamilton leading all academic programs and services he coordinated hamiltons campuswide strategic planning process and created the position of associate dean for diversity initiativesurgos research interests focus on the works of 20thcentury american novelists and writers william faulkner and willa cather he has published six books the most recent being reading faulkner absalom absalom 2010 university press of mississippi coauthored with noel polkhe serves as an advisory member on the board of governors of the willa cather pioneer memorial and educational foundation as a coeditor of the faulkner journal and on the editorial board of the willa cather newsletter and review he was also formerly an advisory editor of college literature