As the University’s Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, Chase Bringardner works with campus leaders and units across the university to advance the Auburn's academic mission and support students' success. In addition to providing oversight for a range of services such as academic advising and support, career services, accessibility, university writing, international programs, and the registrar, Bringardner provides leadership for processes related to curricular and program proposals, core curriculum, and academic honesty. He also serves as the provost liaison to the Honors College and the Biggio Center.
During Bringardner’s time as department chair for the Department of Theatre & Dance in the College of Liberal Arts from 2017-2023, the department grew its number of majors, received the highest possible accreditation award from it’s national accrediting body (National Association of Schools of Theatre), and won both the Department Excellence Award from the Teaching Effectiveness Committee of the University Senate and the Provost’s Excellence in Assessment Award, all while maintaining a thriving, annual six show season through the challenges of global pandemics. Bringardner was also selected as an SEC Provost Leadership Fellow in 2021 & 2022 and successfully co-founded and led the Department Heads and Chairs Leadership group.
In addition to his administrative appointments, Bringardner is a professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance, the immediate past-president of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), and a national advocate for arts education. His research interests include regional identity construction and intersections of race, gender, and class in popular performance. He has contributed articles and reviews to publications such as Theatre Topics, Theatre Journal, Studies in Musical Theatre, Theatre Symposium, and Southern Theatre as well as publishing chapters on musical theatre and popular entertainments in multiple volumes including The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical and The Cambridge Companion to American Theatre since 1945. He also works extensively as a director and dramaturg, recently directing Into the Woods here at the Gogue Performing Arts Center and The Thanksgiving Play at the Telfair Peet Theatre.
