A&S Honors Newly Endowed Professorships
By Lorenzo Perez
The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences recognized 16 newly appointed endowed professors at a celebratory Investiture Ceremony in September. Including these, Arts & Sciences’ faculty now boasts 132 endowed chairs and University Professors, and 15 holders of named professorships.
The event at Charlottesville’s Boar’s Head Resort on September 18 featured remarks by distinguished colleagues and a formal presentation of medallions to the faculty being honored. Endowed professorships stand among the most prestigious honors bestowed by the University of Virginia, recognizing distinguished faculty for extraordinary achievement in their fields and celebrating excellence in earlier stages of an academic career.
In her introductory remarks, Christa Acampora, Buckner W. Clay Professor of Philosophy and dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, acknowledged the College’s long tradition of honoring exceptional faculty members with these designations and endowments’ role in creating the resource base to identify and inspire faculty excellence.
“Each and every one of you here tonight enhances the value of that investment in excellence," Acampora said. "Not only by what you individually produce but also how you contribute to a trove of knowledge, discovery and beauty, one that benefits future generations. Truly, that is something that has enduring value.”
Several other Arts & Sciences faculty members spoke about the significance of their endowed professorships at the Investiture celebration. The Department of English’s Deborah McDowell, who was awarded the Alice Griffin Professorship of Literary Studies in 2000, opened her remarks by speaking about receiving her professorship afforded her a chance to take on important work at UVA, including the shepherding of the University's Carter G. Woodson Institute from an interdisciplinary program into a full-fledged department within the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
“To be awarded such a distinction is to receive the two things most academics covet: recognition of their work and the gift of time, time to accelerate existing scholarly objectives and projects or to launch entirely new adventures,” McDowell said of endowed professorships. “It so happens that receiving the Alice Griffin Professorship afforded me the latter, if unexpected opportunity, to engage in the kind of institutional work that Alice Griffin prized as much as she did her scholarship.”
McDowell went on to share details of the intellectual and artistic contributions of Alice Griffin and how these inspired and intersected with her own achievements.
The celebration concluded with Raymond Keller, the Alumni Council Thomas Jefferson Professor of Biology, and Alison Levine, associate dean for faculty affairs and professor of French, presenting medallions to the newly endowed chairs.
Shortly before the bestowing of the medallions on the newly endowed chairs, Acampora told them that at first blush, it might seem “somewhat awkward” to wear this physical token of distinction.
“But I hope you will wear it with pride — and not just this evening,” she said. “It is intended to be worn every time you wear your academic costumes as an addition to your regalia. When you wear your medals, you are sustaining this community of honor that is enabling and activating our collective success and excellence at the University.”
The complete list of newly endowed chairholders includes:
- Samuel Amago (Spanish), William R. Kenan, Jr. Professorship
- Jesse Ball (English), Sydney Blair Memorial Professorship in Creative Writing
- Dale Copeland (Politics), Hugh S. and Winifred B. Cumming Memorial Professorship in International Affairs
- Glenn Dynner (History), Jay Berkowitz Professorship in Jewish History
- Susan Fraiman (English), Clifton Waller Barrett Professorship
- Thomas Klubock (History), John C. Coleman Professorship in the College of Arts & Sciences
- Zhi-Yun Li (Astronomy), W.H. Vanderbilt Professorship in Astronomy
- Angeline Lillard (Psychology), Commonwealth Professorship
- Laurie Maffly-Kipp (Religious Studies), Richard Lyman Bushman Professorship in Mormon Studies
- Alexander MacKay (Economics), James H. and Elizabeth W. Wright Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Professorship
- Steve Majewski (Astronomy), W.H. Vanderbilt Professorship in Astronomy
- Andrew Preston (History), W.L. Lyons Brown Jr. Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Professorship in Diplomacy and Statecraft
- Bethany Teachman (Psychology), Commonwealth Professorship
- Chad Wellmon (Germanic Languages & Literature, English), Commonwealth Professorship
- Brad Wilcox (Sociology), Melville Foundation Jefferson Scholars Foundation University Scholarship
- Xiaochao Zheng (Physics), Brown-Forman Professorship