Dennis M. Kratz is Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities and Ignacy and Celina Rockover Professor of Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. Prior to his appointment in 1997 as Dean of A&H, he served as the University’s Dean of Undergraduate Education. As a dean, scholar and teacher, Kratz emphasizes “meaningful transformation.” His research emphasizes the continuation and transformation of the western “heroic” tradition from classical antiquity through medieval and modern literature. He studies the ways in which artists seek both to maintain the essential qualities of that inheritance and to make it a vehicle for the expression of values more appropriate and meaningful for a contemporary audience. He has published four books: Mocking Epic: Waltharius, Alexandreis and the Problem of Christian Heroism (1980); Waltharius and Ruodlieb (1984); The Romances of Alexander (1991); and, with Dr. Abby Robinson Kratz, Effective Listening Skills (1994). He has also published numerous articles and reviews on subjects ranging from epic poetry and the changing nature of heroism to translation, translation theory, and Fantasy and Science Fiction. A translator of classical and medieval literature, Dr. Kratz was co-editor of the journal Translation Review from 1980-2017 and has served as President of the American Literary Translators Association. As Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at UTD, Dr. Kratz has sought to maintain the abiding value of the Liberal Arts tradition while transforming it to meet the educational needs of the twenty-first century. He has led the development of new degree programs (among them a program in Arts and Technology that has since become a separate School within the university); new research centers such as the Center for Values in Medicine, Science and Technology; and the first Confucius Institute in Texas. As Dean of Undergraduate Education, he led a team of faculty, students and administrators to create Collegium V, the first University Honors Program. Dr. Kratz has received numerous honors including the University of Texas System Chancellor's Council Outstanding Teaching Award; the “Person of the Year” Award from the DFW Asian American Citizens Council; a medal from the Chinese Ministry of Education recognizing his contributions to the Confucius Institute; and fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Dumbarton Oaks and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (Germany). Dr. Kratz received his BA, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Dartmouth College (1963). He received the MA in Classical Philology (1964) and PhD in Medieval Latin (1970), both from Harvard University. Prior to joining the UT Dallas faculty, he taught at The Roxbury Latin School (Boston), Simmons College and The Ohio State University.