John J. Contreni, Justin S. Morrill Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Professor of History, joined the Purdue faculty in 1971. He received his BA from St. Vincent College (1966) and his MA and PhD degrees from Michigan State University (1968, 1971). At Purdue, he has taught undergraduate courses on medieval history, Charlemagne, the Crusades, and medieval intellectual culture; and graduate courses primarily on late antiquity and the Carolingian age (fourth to tenth centuries C.E.). In 1999, he joined the inaugural cohort of Purdue professors chosen for the Purdue University Book of Great Teachers. Author of numerous scholarly publications, he has presented his work at international conferences in Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, and Italy, as well as throughout the United States. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. His administrative career at Purdue includes posts as assistant dean in the School of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Humanities (now CLA), interim head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, head of the Department of History, and most recently, dean of the Graduate School.