Dwight A. McBride is Dean of The Graduate School and Associate Provost for Graduate Education at Northwestern University where he had also chaired the Department of African American Studies and was the Leon Forrest Professor before leaving to become Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

A scholar of literature and culture, McBride received his undergraduate degree at Princeton University and his doctorate at UCLA and has held faculty positions at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Northwestern. His scholarly work has resulted in numerous books, articles, and awards.