Centre announces tenure, promotions

RELEASED: April 19, 2007

DANVILLE, KY—Tenure and promotions were approved last week at Centre College's annual spring meeting of the Board of Trustees.

Tenure and promotion to associate professor has been granted to Jan Wertz, assistant professor of psychology, and Lisa Williams, assistant professor of English.

In 2005, Wertz received the Kirk Award from Centre for excellence in teaching. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. from the University of Kentucky and B.S. degrees from Montana State University and the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology. Prior to Centre, she was assistant professor of psychology at Kentucky Wesleyan College. She had a pre-doctoral internship at a VA hospital in Tacoma, Wash., performing neuropsychological evaluations, working with Alzheimer's patients, and assisting homeless veterans gain housing and employment. Her research has been published extensively, she serves on several Centre committees, and she performs community service in Danville and at the College.

Williams received her B.A. from Belmont University, her M.A. in literature from the University of Cincinnati, and her M.F.A. in creative writing-poetry from the University of Virginia. She spent a year in Rome after receiving the 2004-05 Rome Prize in Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her poems have been published in Raritan, The New Republic, Poetry, New England Review, Literary Imagination, Southwest Review, Georgia Review, and other magazines, as well as in the anthology American Poetry: Next Generation. Williams' 1998 book of poems, The Hammered Dulcimer, won the May Swenson Poetry Award. Williams has received a Henry Hoyns Fellowship, an Academy of American Poets Prize, an Elliston Prize, and a Walter E. Dakin fellowship, among other fellowships and awards. Her teaching interests include creative writing and poetry of all periods.

Two Centre faculty members were granted promotion to the rank of associate professor: David Hall, assistant professor of religion, and Lori Hartmann-Mahmud, assistant professor of international studies.

In 2005, Hall received the Kirk Award. He holds a B.A. in rhetoric from California State University in Sacramento and attended graduate school at the University of Chicago, where he received an M.Div. and a Ph.D. Hall's primary research interest is 19th- and 20th-century European thought. He is co-editor of and contributor to a volume of essays titled Paul Ricoeur and Contemporary Moral Thought. His approach is broadly interdisciplinary, addressing currents within philosophy, literary theory, psychology, and sociology, and their impact on contemporary theology and ethics. One of his particular interests concerns the manner in which religious texts and discourse function poetically and rhetorically.

Hartmann-Mahmud was awarded the Centre "Rookie of the Year" teaching award in 2000 and a Kirk Award in 2003. She holds a B.A. from Denison University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Denver. Hartmann-Mahmud's scholarly interests focus on African politics, Latin American politics, women and development in West Africa, and democratic transitions in Africa. Her article, "The Rural-Urban Dynamic and Implications for Development: Perspectives from Nigerian Women," appeared in the Journal of Contemporary African Studies (spring 2004). She also had a piece titled "A Language of Their Own: Development Discourse in Niger" published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (winter 2004). In 2002, her article "War as Metaphor" appeared in Peace Review: Journal of Social Justice. Other articles and reviews have been published in Development, Fourth World Bulletin, and Africa Today.

Three faculty members were approved for promotion to the rank of professor: Endre Nyerges, associate professor of anthropology; Mark Rasmussen, associate professor of English; and Clarence Wyatt, Pottinger Associate Professor of History, chief planning officer, and special assistant to the president.

Nyerges holds a B.S. from Earlham College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He has edited two volumes of scholarly work in anthropology and has been published extensively in scholarly books and journals. At Centre, Nyerges has served as a student advisor and has extensively collaborated with students on published research and projects. He has obtained a large number of grants for research on various ecological studies and has an impressive collection of published articles and edited books.

Rasmussen holds a B.A. and M.A. from Harvard, and M.A. and Ph.D. from the John Hopkins University. He has published essays on Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, and has edited a collection of essays. His teaching responsibilities at the College encompass courses in medieval and Renaissance literature, literary criticism and theory, and the history of the English language, as well as freshman humanities. Rasmussen has been a faculty leader, having served the College as director of writing, chair of the English program and the John C. Young Scholars committee, and the Committee on Curriculum and Academic Standards during a two-year process of curriculum reform.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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