Jeff Vahlbusch
- Ph.D., Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan
- M.A., German Literature and Philology, University of Michigan
- B.A., German and English Literature, University of Michigan
Jeff Vahlbusch joined Lenoir-Rhyne in October 2023 as founding dean of the Fritz Honors College. Vahlbusch began his life in honors education as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, earning the highest honors in German with a senior honors thesis on Friedrich Nietzsche and Franz Kafka.
Vahlbusch will take charge of the planning and implementation of the new honors college that will unite the university’s interdisciplinary honors programs under a single entity.
As a teacher and scholar of German literature, history and philosophy, Vahlbusch conducted research and taught at four different universities in Germany. Vahlbusch became a professor of German at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC), earning tenure and promotion in 2005. He then directed the University Honors Program at UWEC from 2009-2017. From 2017 until July 2023, Vahlbusch led Appalachian State University’s Honors College as its inaugural dean.