Brian C. Rosenberg is President-in-Residence at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and President Emeritus of Macalester College. Rosenberg served as Macalester’s sixteenth president from 2003-2020.

During Rosenberg’s 17-year tenure at Macalester, enrollment of U.S. students of color at the college increased significantly. Under his leadership, the college prospered during a challenging economic period, delivering balanced budgets, expanded student counts, and several major additions to the campus infrastructure. Rosenberg led Macalester in two significant and successful fundraising campaigns; the first concluded in December 2011, and the second concluded in May 2020.

Rosenberg champions the liberal arts college in the United States: “The liberal arts model rests on a belief in the transformative power of ideas, the necessity of collaborative action for the common good, and the importance of individual self-determination.” He has been quoted in the press on a variety of issues and authored many articles on higher education topics including higher education access and quality, tuition costs, and college rankings.

Prior to becoming President at Macalester, Rosenberg was dean of the faculty and an English professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. He also served as an English professor and chair of the English department at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

A Charles Dickens scholar, he has written numerous articles on the Victorian author and other subjects as well as two books: Mary Lee Settle’s Beulah Quintet: The Price of Freedom and Little Dorrit’s Shadows: Character and Contradiction in Dickens. Rosenberg served as a trustee of the Dickens Society from 2000 to 2004.