PULLMAN, Wash. — Marina Tolmacheva (Tol-ma-CHOH-va), professor of history and director of the Asia Program, has been named associate dean of the Washington State University College of Liberal Arts. Her duties, which she will assume on Dec. 1, will include coordination and oversight of the college’s Extended Degree offerings, curriculum review, summer school programs, enrollment management and student advising.
A Russian native, Tolmacheva earned her first academic degree from Leningrad University (now St. Petersburg University) in the history of Arab countries, and her doctorate from the Academy of Sciences Institute of Ethnography in the history of Africa.
In 1972, she immigrated to the United States and taught at Harvard University, the University of Washington and Seattle University. She came to WSU in 1987 as assistant professor of history to teach Middle East history and Islamic civilization. She was promoted to associate professor in 1990 and to full professor in 1996. In 1993 she was named director of the Asia Program.
Grants from many agencies, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Philosophical Society, and Fulbright Fellowships have supported her research on Islamic culture and history in locations reaching from East Africa to Central Asia. Her most recent book is “The Pate Chronicle,” which was published in 1993 by the Michigan State University Press.
Tolmacheva will continue in her position as Asia Program director after assuming the half-time position as associate dean.
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