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, co-author or editor of twenty-four textbooks and collections and 50 scholarly articles in the fields of language, culture, and educational development, including a landmark 20-year longitudinal investigation of adult second language acquisition in the overseas immersion context.  His most recent study, “What Makes Study Abroad Transformative?  Comparing Linguistic and Cultural Contacts and Learning Outcomes in Virtual vs In-Person Contexts,” appeared in UC Berkeley L2 Journal, Vol 15, Issue 2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.5070/L215260148

Dr. Davidson is now emeritus professor of Russian and Second Language Acquisition on the Myra T. Cooley Lectureship in Russian Studies at Bryn Mawr, where he served as Department Chair (1978-1987), directed or co-directed 37 Ph.D. dissertations and a similar number of M.A. theses in the field of Russian and second-language acquisition, taught undergraduate courses on language policy and identity in Russophone Eurasia, the social dynamics of Russian, Russian in the disciplines, and served as course director and master class instructor of Russian 001-002 from 1976 to 2017. 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 founding president of the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, and current Director of the American Councils Research Center in Washington, D.C..  American Councils, a long-standing institutional partner of Bryn Mawr has developed into one of the premier federally funded academic exchange and international development organizations, focusing its expertise on the design and implementation of advanced level language and area studies, professional development, education reform and research support    with the US and 90 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.

From 1992–1995, Dr. Davidson was co-chair of the Transformation of the Humanities and Social Sciences initiative sponsored by philanthropist George Soros. The program produced over four hundred experimental textbooks for schools and colleges in Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia for use in schools and universities in the years immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  During the past 25 years, Dr. Davidson has also contributed to the design and implementation of a range of US and foreign government education reform and international exchange programs primarily in the post-Soviet area.   

Dr. Davidson served as a member and former chair of the World Language Academic Advisory Committee of the College Board and was elected president of the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL), chair of the Alliance for International Education and Cultural Exchange, vice-chair of the Board of Governors of the European Humanities University (Vilnius), vice president of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRIAL), chair of the Board of the Center for Educational Testing and Methodology (Kyrgyzstan), the first independent educational testing center in Central Asia and a member of the Commission on Language Learning in America, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2015-2017).

Davidson is an elected foreign member of the Russian and the Ukrainian Academies of Education and recipient of an honorary professorship from Kyrgyz National University (Bishkek) and of honorary doctoral degrees from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (2022), the Abai State Pedagogical University (1998), the Russian Academy of Sciences (Division of Language and Literature), and the State University of World Languages (Uzbekistan). He has received awards for distinguished service to the profession from the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL) in 1995 and the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages of the Modern Language Association (ADFL/MLA) in 1997, the American Council of Teachers of Russian (2015), the Language Flagship (2017), and the Joint National Committee of Languages (2023).   He is holder of the “Order of Friendship,” conveyed in 1990 by Order of President Mikhail Gorbachev and the Kyrgyz Medal of Distinction (“Dank”) in 2005, both the highest recognition accorded to a foreign citizen in those two nations.   

March 2023