Dan E. Davidson

Dan E. Davidson received A. M. and Ph.D. degrees in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Harvard University, and has studied as well at Bonn, Moscow State University and the Harvard Institute for Social Enterprise. He is author or editor of forty-four books and more than 60 scholarly articles in the fields of language, culture, and educational development, including a major 20-year longitudinal investigation of adult second language acquisition in the overseas immersion context.

Dr. Davidson is professor of Russian and Second Language Acquisition, Myra T. Cooley Lectureship in Russian Studies, and has directed or co-directed 36 Ph.D. dissertations in the field of Russian and second-language acquisition over his years at Bryn Mawr. He currently teaches departmental courses on language policy and identity in Russophone Eurasia, the social dynamics of Russian, Russian in the disciplines, and has serves as course director and master class instructor of Russian 001-002. Dr. Davidson has taught previously or served as a visiting faculty member at Harvard University, Amherst College, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland/College Park. 

Dr. Davidson is president and co-founder of the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, which, since beginning operation on the Bryn Mawr campus in 1976, has developed into one of the premier international education federally funded exchange organizations, focusing its expertise on the design and implementation of advanced level language and area studies, professional development, curriculum and test development, research and evaluation, and institution building in 65 countries of the world. Its association division, the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR), is dedicated to strengthening the study and teaching of Russian language and literature throughout the United States.