The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has named several accomplished faculty members to endowed chair and professorship positions, including two from the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics. The positions are some of the highest honors that can be granted by the college.
The recipients will be awarded discretionary funding to carry out research and scholarship related to their fields. They will be honored in investiture ceremonies scheduled throughout the year.
“These professors represent the very best of LAS in terms of research, scholarship, public engagement, education, and service,” said Venetria K. Patton, the Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of LAS. “We will celebrate their achievements with pride and look forward to their future endeavors and accomplishments.”
The recipients from SLCL are as follow:
Antony Augoustakis, classics, and Waïl Hassan, comparative and world literature, received the John A. and Grace W. Nicholson Professorship. The professorship aims to help further the study of humanities, with special preference to literature and the history of philosophy. Augoustakis studies cultural poetics and the sociopolitics of Flavian poetry. Hassan studies Modern Arabic, Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone literatures.
Augoustakis is also associate dean for humanities and interdisciplinary programs for LAS.
The professorship originated from the John A. Nicholson and Grace W. Nicholson Endowment Fund, established in 1999, which was a gift of Grace W. Nicholson (1906-1998) who pursued undergraduate studies in the College of LAS, and professor emeritus John A. Nicholson (1891-1986), who taught in the Department of Philosophy at U of I for 33 years.
Editor's note: A version of this story first appeared on the College of LAS website.