Faculty Endowed Chairs Presentation

By William Hoynes, Dean of Faculty

Good afternoon. I have the great pleasure of announcing four new appointments to faculty-endowed Chairs.

An endowed Chair, which funds a faculty position, is created by a financial gift to the college, often in a designated field of study or stage of career. It is typically named for either the donor or for someone being honored by the donor. Being named to an endowed Chair is a significant honor because it recognizes the importance of the recipient’s scholarly or creative work and their contributions to the college, including valuable campus leadership.

The Jean Webster Chair

This endowed chair was established in 1964 with a gift in honor of novelist and playwright Jean Webster, Vassar class of 1901. The Jean Webster Chair recognizes and supports a faculty member whose scholarship and teaching interests focus on American Literature, Creative Writing or Drama.

The recipient of the Jean Webster Chair is Professor of English Eve Dunbar.

Professor Dunbar has been a faculty member in the English Department since 2004, where she teaches innovative courses on the African American literary tradition. Professor Dunbar is a highly acclaimed scholar of mid-twentieth century and contemporary African American literature. She is the recipient of two prestigious national fellowships: The American Council of Learned Societies Burkhardt fellowship and, last year, the W.E.B. Du Bois fellowship at Harvard University’s W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Professor Dunbar ’s many scholarly publications include Black Regions of the Imagination: African American Writers Between the Nation and The World, published by Temple University Press; and an edited volume African American Literature in Transition, 1930-1940, which will be published next year as part of Cambridge University Press ’s comprehensive series on African American Literature in Transition. Professor Dunbar ’s is completing a new book Radical Satisfaction: The Monstrous Work of Black Women Writing Under Segregation and Beyond.

Next is … The Mary Riepma Ross ’32 Chair in Drama

This endowed chair was established in 2014 with a gift from the estate of Mary Riepma Ross, a devoted alumna of Vassar until her death in 2013 at the age 102. This Mary Riepma Ross Chair honors and supports a distinguished faculty member in the Department of Drama.

The Mary Riepma Ross ’32 Chair in Drama is awarded this year to Professor of Drama Shona Tucker.

Professor Tucker began teaching in the Drama Department in 2008. Since arriving at Vassar, she has been Director of Theater and has served as Chair of the Drama Department since 2017. Professor Tucker has served as a guest artist or teaching artist at Yale University, the Manhattan Theater Club, Emerson College, New York Stage and Film ’s Powerhouse Theater, and the Youth Performing Arts School. Professor Tucker is an accomplished actor, director, and writer, with a vast portfolio of credits in theater, television, and film. Among her many theater performances include multiple shows with the Half Moon Theater Company in the Hudson Valley as well as performances at the Yale Repertory Theater and the American Conservatory Theater’s new Strand Theater space in San Francisco. And, as many of you know, Professor Tucker played the role of Calpurnia as a member of the original cast in the Broadway production of the award-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, where her performance garnered rave reviews.

Next is … The Mary Clark Rockefeller Assistant Professor Chair in Environmental Studies.

The Mary Clark Rockefeller Chair, one of two pre-tenure chairs in Environmental Studies, was established in 2001 with a gift from Mary R. Morgan, Vassar class of 1960, in honor of her mother Mary Clark Rockefeller. The two Mary Clark Rockefeller Assistant Professor Chairs, which rotate among junior faculty members who hold the chair during their Assistant Professor years, were created to provide sustaining support for the Environmental Studies Program at Vassar.

This year, the Mary Clark Rockefeller Chair is awarded to Assistant Professor of Biology Myra Hughey.

Professor Hughey joined the Vassar faculty in 2017; she is a microbiologist who studies microbiome diversity and disease. Professor Hughey teaches courses on Evolutionary Genetics, Ecology, and Ecosystem Ecology, and she has mentored student research in the areas of Microbial Ecology and Disease Ecology. Among her scholarly projects, Prof. Hughey has conducted substantial research on the Vassar campus. She and her students are cataloguing the diversity of reptiles and amphibians on the campus, testing for the presence of disease-causing fungus. And, in a project supported by a National Science Foundation grant, she has conducted field surveys on campus to study how environmental stressors may influence the formation of microbiome in vertebrate animals. Professor Hughey is a highly regarded scholar, teacher, and mentor of student research, and a member of the Steering Committee of our multidisciplinary Environmental Studies Program.

Finally, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair.

This endowed chair was established in 1968 with a grant from the Trustees of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust. The establishment of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair at Vassar aims “to support a College teacher whose enthusiasm for learning, commitment to teaching and interest in students will make a notable contribution to the College’s undergraduate community.”

The William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair is awarded to Michele Tugade, Professor of Psychological Science.

Professor Tugade, a Vassar alum, began teaching at Vassar since 2004. During her career at Vassar, she has taught a wide range of courses in the growing field of Health Psychology, served on the Faculty Appointment and Salary Committee, as a Class Advisor in the Dean of Studies Office, and taught medical students at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, among many other contributions to the College. Professor Tugade ’s research focuses on psychological resilience, and she directs the Affective Science Laboratory at Vassar, where she works with her students to conduct multi-method studies in the science of emotions. Professor Tugade, has been a pioneer in the study of positive emotions; her most recent book, The Handbook of Positive Emotions and her research on joy and gratitude have helped to define the field. In addition, some of Professor Tugade ’s most recent work has made valuable, and timely, contributions to scholarship on mental health in higher education.

All four of these accomplished faculty members have distinguished themselves as teachers, scholars, and campus leaders who support students and the College itself in a variety of roles. I am honored to recognize them here today.

I invite the recipients to please rise to accept our acknowledgement, appreciation, and applause.

Thank you.