Appointments made for 4 endowed chairs

Author: Erik Runyon

Three University of Notre Dame faculty members have been awarded endowed professorships and another has been appointed to a collegiate chair, according to University Provost Nathan O. Hatch. The appointments bring the number of endowed chairs at Notre Dame to 210.p. The newly appointed endowed professors are:p. • Gary M. Gutting, Notre Dame Professor of PhilosophyGutting has spent his entire academic career at Notre Dame, specializing in the areas of continental philosophy, the philosophy of science and the philosophy of religion. His books include “Religious Belief and Religious Skepticism,” “Michel Foucaults Archaeology of Scientific Reason,” “Pragmatic Liberalism and the Critique of Modernity,” and “French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century.” He is the co-author or editor of another six volumes, and his most recent book, “Michel Foucault,” is scheduled for publication in 2005. Gutting is a former editor of “American Philosophical Quarterly” and founding editor of “Notre Dame Philosophical Review,” an electronic book review journal. A former officer of the American Philosophical Association and the Philosophy of Science Association, he served as chair of the Notre Dame Department of Philosophy from 1990 to 1996. He earned his bachelors and doctoral degrees from St. Louis University and has done research with grants from the Fulbright Program, the National Science Foundation and Notre Dames Erasmus Institute.p. • John E. Sitter, Notre Dame Professor of EnglishSitter specializes in late 17th and 18th century literature, poetry and poetics, satire, nature poetry and ecological criticism. Books he has authored include “The Poetry of Popes Dunciad,” “Literary Loneliness in Mid-Eighteenth Century England” and “Arguments of Augustan Wit.” He is the editor of “The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry” and “Eighteenth-Century British Poets,” and two volumes of “The Dictionary of Literary Biography.” His recent work includes an essay on William Collins and the chapter on poetry from 1740 to 1785 for the revised “Cambridge History of English Literature.” He served on the editorial advisory board for the third volume of the “Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature,” and was an expert witness on parody in the copyright case surrounding “The Wind Done Gone.” Sitter earned his bachelors degree from Harvard University and his doctoral degree from the University of Minnesota.p. • Tariq Ramadan, Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding in the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace StudiesSwiss scholar Tariq Ramadan was appointed to the Kroc Institutes core faculty and holds a joint appointment with the Notre Dame Department of Classics. He is the author of “Western Muslims and the Future of Islam,” as well as many articles on contemporary Islam in dialogue with the West. Ramadan has written extensively on the nature of shariah, intra-community discourse within the world of Islam, and contemporary policy questions facing Muslims. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Geneva. Ramadan is scheduled to teach courses on Islam, religious peacebuilding, and interfaith dialogue. He has been unable to begin teaching because the U.S. State Department, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, revoked his visa days before he was to relocate to Notre Dame. No specific reasons for the action have been communicated to Ramadan or the University, and Ramadan has reapplied for a visa.p. The newly appointed collegiate chair is:p. • Susan C. Ohmer, William T. Carey and Helen Kuhn Carey Assistant Professor of Modern CommunicationOhmers scholarly interests include the history of media in U.S. culture and the industrial and economic aspects of film and television. She teaches courses in the social history of technology, television history, and Internet culture. As advisor and faculty liaison to the debate team, Ohmer explores creative ways to integrate debate into the academic curriculum. Her research focuses on the industrial, technological and economic frameworks that shape and are shaped by media. Titled “Measuring Desire: George Gallup in Hollywood,” Ohmers dissertation won the Society of Cinema Studies Dissertation Award in 1998. She has published essays on film history in The Velvet Light Trap, The Journal of Film and Video, and Film History, and in the anthologies “Storytelling in Animation” and “Identifying Hollywoods Audiences.” Before joining the faculty at Notre Dame, Ohmer taught at the University of Michigan and at Vassar College. Ohmer is active in the American Studies Association and the Society for Animation Studies, and serves on the Board of Trustees of the South Bend Regional Museum of Art. She earned bachelor of arts and bachelor of fine arts degrees from Ohio State University and her masters and doctoral degrees from New York University.p. Contact: Mary E. Pugel, executive assistant to the provost, 574-631-9261

TopicID: 7462