Provost and Dean of the College

Elliott Visconsi ’95

A head shot of Elliot Visconsi

Provost and Dean of the College

Elliott Visconsi, PhD, an academic leader and class of 1995 alumnus, is the provost and dean of the College. He joined Holy Cross in July 2023. 

Visconsi leads the College’s academic affairs, serving as a key member of the president’s senior leadership team and working to support and enhance the College’s core academic functions, faculty and curricula.  His early focus includes leading academic strategic planning, fostering innovative pedagogies and interdisciplinary discovery, and advancing scholarship and academic excellence.

The recipient of distinguished fellowships from the Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, he often presents on matters related to academic freedom, campus freedom of speech in the digital age, and academic innovation to higher education audiences in the United States and abroad.

Previously, Visconsi served as associate provost and chief academic digital officer at the University of Notre Dame. He led Notre Dame’s approach to innovative learning and teaching strategies—including digital learning, interinstitutional collaboration and experimental models for the future of education. 

A scholar of early modern English literature, freedom of expression and First Amendment law, Visconsi’s academic research is devoted to law, literature and political thought in the early modern Anglo-American world, especially in relation to racial identity and religious pluralism. He also writes about academic freedom and free speech in the digital age, especially the interactions of disinformation, persuasion and democracy.

Visconsi holds a A.B. in English, cum laude, from Holy Cross, a PhD in English literature from UCLA and an M.S.L. from Yale Law School. A native of the Cleveland area, Visconsi is married to fellow Holy Cross graduate Maura (Cullen) Visconsi ‘95, an elementary educator. They are the parents of three children.