Biddy Martin, the chair of Cornell University's Department of German Studies for the past two years, has been appointed associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1.

She will continue to serve as an associate professor in the Department of German Studies and the Women's Studies Program and as director of graduate studies for the Field of Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Studies. Professor Arthur Groos will succeed Martin as interim chair of the Department of German Studies.

Martin was appointed to the post by Philip E. Lewis, who will begin his own term as dean of the college on July 1 after having served as acting dean for the past year.

"Biddy Martin will bring a combination of youthful vigor, remarkable scholarly achievement, and ample administrative experience into the office of the dean," Lewis said. "In both Women's Studies and German Studies, she has been an energetic, uniformly successful leader. I am confident that she will quickly acquire the admiration and respect of the chairs and directors with whom she will work as an associate dean."

Martin received a Ph.D. in German literature from the University of Wisconsin -- Madison in 1985, a master's in German literature from Middlebury College in 1974 and a bachelor's in English literature from the College of William and Mary in 1973. She has been a member of the Cornell faculty since 1984.

She has served on the steering committees of Cornell's Institute for German Cultural Studies and Women's Studies Program and on the Clark Teaching Awards Selection Committee, University Appeals Committee and Humanities Council.

She is the author of Woman and Modernity: The (Life) Styles of Lou Andreas-SalomŽ (Cornell University Press, 1991). Femininity Played Straight: The Significance of Being Lesbian is due to be published by Routledge in September.