Newly appointed as Interim Director of the LEAP Institute for the Arts, Bruce Ronda is also Associate Dean for Faculty and Graduate Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Professor in the Department of English. He has been at Colorado State University since 1991, teaching literature and American studies courses. From 2001 to 2011 he was chair of the Department of English. When not teaching or administering programs, he works on scholarly projects in nineteenth-century American literature and culture. Bruce is also a pianist and five-string banjo-player.