Ohio University English Professor Dean McWilliams
Appointed to Ping Institute
Editors: A photo of Dean McWilliams is available at
www.ohiou.edu/news/pix/MCWILLIAMS.JPG
ATHENS, Ohio (August 11, 2000) -- Ohio University English Professor Dean McWilliams has been appointed the J. Richard Hamilton/Baker and Hostetler Professor of Humanities at Ohio Universityıs Charles J. Ping Institute for the Teaching of the Humanities.
A member of the English Department at Ohio University since 1969, McWilliams has won numerous teaching awards and research fellowships. Trained in comparative literature, he has published books on Michel Butor and John Gardner and has recently prepared editions of two novels by Charles W. Chesnutt that have been published by Princeton University Press. He was elected a fellow of the Ping Institute in 1998. His appointment begins fall quarter.
"Dean McWilliams was chosen from an extraordinarily strong group of nominees," said Classics Professor of Humanities Tom Carpenter, a member of the appointment committee. "Above all the committee was impressed by the outstanding quality of his teaching, by his dedication to undergraduates education, and to his energy in undertaking new projects in support of the humanities."
McWilliams is currently preparing a manuscript on Chesnutt.
The Ping Institute was created by the Ohio University Board of Trustees in 1992. It supports and encourages the teaching of the humanities in schools and universities by funding projects such as library acquisitions, curriculum revisions, teaching colloquia, public forums and summer workshops for teachers. The institute includes three distinguished teaching professors and three professor fellows in addition to a high school teacher fellow. The Hamilton/Baker and Hostetler Professorship was previously held by Alan Booth, who retired from the History Department in 1999.
