Office of the Provost
The University of Montana Western
710 S. Atlantic Street
Dillon, MT 59725
Tel: 406-683-7104
Location: Main Hall 325
Provost: Dr. Brian Elliott
E-mail: [email protected]
A Message from Provost Dr. Brian Elliott
“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.”
-John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 May 1780
As a scholar of early American literature, I have the pleasure of studying the thoughts and words of those whose vision shaped the United States as we know it, and I’m constantly reminded of the great value those visionaries and founders placed on curiosity and the pursuit of learning. As John Adams indicates in the above quotation, the value of such learning comes not just for the individual but for others, for their children, and their children’s children, and for their society as a whole. It is that spirit of education as a public good that guides Montana Western, a regional comprehensive university dedicated to providing educational opportunities like those Adams listed to the public and for the public. As Provost, even on an interim basis, I consider it a privilege to help advance that mission and to provide people with access to the liberty, and the right, to study everything from architecture to agriculture, mathematics to music, politics to porcelain.
University Links
Statement on Student Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence
Year Seven Self-Evaluation Report
State Authorization & Licensure Disclosures
Academic Road Map – A Living Document
Biography
Brian Elliott earned his B.S.in Computer Science and English from Muskingum University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Ohio University, where his research focused on nineteenth-century American literature and Transatlantic Romanticism. His research and teaching interests include early American literature, British and Transatlantic Romanticism, satire, mythology and folklore, and the presentation of moral and ethical issues in literature.
Elliott has recently presented work on Catharine Maria Sedgwick at the American Literature Association symposium on the historical imagination in American literature and Herman Melville’s use of the just-world hypothesis in his short stories. His current research project explores the role of deception and lying in the works of Charles Brockden Brown and other early American writers. At Montana Western, Elliott teaches courses in graphic novels, early American literature, fantasy and science fiction, and composition. Elliott comes to Montana Western from his previous position as Assistant Professor of English at Urbana University in Ohio, where he also served as Chair of Humanities and director of the William G. Edwards Honors Program.