Center for Teaching and Learning

Adam Beaver is a scholar and academic leader with a distinguished career in teaching, faculty development, and the humanities.

Trained as a Renaissance historian, Adam is especially attuned to what we can learn from the deep history of universities, including the different kinds of intellectual practices and communities which have inhabited them. Rather than see recent trends in higher education, like the advent of generative artificial intelligence or the shift towards active learning classrooms, as moments of rupture which render traditional modes of teaching and scholarship obsolete, Adam is interested in thinking with Brandeis instructors and students about the best way to blend old and new approaches into a bespoke style that works for each individual’s goals.

Prior to his arrival at Brandeis, Adam was the Director of Pedagogy at Harvard University’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, where he led a team supporting hundreds of faculty and graduate students in inclusive pedagogy, course design, and academic mentorship. Over his eight years at Harvard, he expanded pedagogical support structures, developed award-winning faculty resources, and helped guide institutional responses to critical shifts, including the transition to remote instruction and the integration of generative AI. An accomplished grant writer and program strategist, he has also authored peer-reviewed scholarship, co-developed a global online course on university teaching, and presented widely at academic conferences.

Before his career in teaching and learning, Adam was an Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University, where he taught and published on the European Renaissance. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University and an M.St. from Oxford.