Alvin Goldfarb

Alvin "Al" Goldfarb is an American academic administrator who served as the tenth president of Western Illinois University from 2002 to 2011. From 1977 to 2002, he was on the faculty of the department of theatre at Illinois State University in Normal, where he was also chairman of the theatre department, dean of fine arts from 1988 to 1998, and provost and vice president for academic affairs from 1998.

Education Goldfarb earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts and Mass Communication from Queens College, City University of New York. He then earned a Master of Arts in Theatre and Cinema from Hunter College and a Ph.D. in theater history from the City College of New York.

Career In 2006, Goldfarb announced that he was being treated for prostate cancer and that a complete recovery was expected.

At Illinois State University, Goldfarb was involved in establishing an internship program with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and constructing new center for the performing arts.

Goldfarb has researched and written extensively on the arts and on the Holocaust, of which his parents are survivors. He co-edited and contributed to the book Holocaust and Performance.

With Rebecca Rovit, he co-edited the book Theatrical performance during the Holocaust: texts, documents, memoirs (Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. ).

Textbooks He has written three widely used university textbooks on theater jointly with Edwin Wilson, a former Broadway theatre critic for The Wall Street Journal. Living Theatre : A History, 2nd edition. New York : McGraw-Hill, c1994. (alk. paper) 3rd edition Anthology of Living Theater, 1st edition, Boston: McGraw-Hill, c1998. 2nd edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, c2001. 3rd edition. Theater: the Lively Art 1st edition, 1991, 4th edition, 2002, 6th edition, forthcoming,