Faculty awards inspire future

Dear Readers,

Tuesday marked a historical occasion in the life of Davidson College: the inauguration of Davidson's 18th president, who is also the first female president of the college. This year's ceremony also included the annual Fall Convocation, during which The Davidsonian was encouraged by the two professors selected to receive this year's faculty awards. The combination of the President's Inauguration and Convocation in a single ceremony made the bestowal of these awards especially meaningful, because the Inauguration is a symbol of the College moving in a new direction with its future in mind.

Professor of Theatre Anne Marie Costa was awarded the Boswell Family Faculty Fellowship, a full salary sabbatical leave for the 2012-2013 academic year. She will travel to New York and London to be involved with a project in "Devised Theater," wherein collaborators begin without written text to craft a play. The result of her sabbatical will be a new theatre course in this technique at Davidson, as well as an original devised theater piece based on Virginia Woolf's story "An Unwritten Novel." That she received this prestigious award demonstrates the College's commitment to novel approaches to artistic expression.   

The Thomas Jefferson Award is presented annually to a faculty member who promotes the high ideals of Jefferson through personal influence, teaching, writing, and scholarship. What sets this year's winner, Professor of English and Thomson Professor of Environmental Studies Annie Ingram, apart from other professors at Davidson is not her teaching ability or commitment to students – though her qualities in these areas are admirable. It's the fact that she challenged tradition at Davidson to redefine what a liberal arts education means. Ingram was Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies program, has been on professional trips to Saudi Arabia and Costa Rica that focused on environmental issues and literature, taught an ethnic studies course in the English Department, and will be directing the 2012 Davidson in India program.

As Director of the new interdisciplinary Environmental Studies major, Ingram embodies Davidson's Strategic Plan and our commitment to integrated thinking. "The most visible foundation of her work...is our Environmental Studies program: the unique combination of disciplines, the truly multidiscipline character of the major, the concern for both the most local of issues as well a those half a world away reflect all that we hope to do more broadly in this college's future," noted Dean of Faculty Clark Ross.

Tuesday's Inauguration and Fall Convocation reaffirmed Davidson's mission to the liberal arts, promising a bright future guided by innovative and interdisciplinary inquiry and learning.