The Carleton College Board of Trustees recently approved the appointments of six professors to endowed chair positions at the College. Mark Kanazawa was named the Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Social Sciences; Michael J. Kowalewski was named the Lloyd McBride Professor of English and Environmental Studies; Beverly Nagel ‘75 was named the Winifred and Atherton Bean Professor of Sociology, Science, Technology, and Society; Mary Elizabeth Savina ’72 was named the Charles L. Denison Professor of Geology; Harry McKinley Williams Jr. was named the Laird Bell Professor of History; and Cathy Yandell was named the David and Marian Adams Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Professor of French and the Humanities.
Mark Kanazawa came to Carleton in 1985, having earned his BA in economics from Earlham College and his PhD in economics from Stanford University. Since arriving at Carleton, he has held visiting positions at the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Illinois, the Center for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University, and the Agricultural and Resource Economics department the University of California, Berkeley, the latter as Wantrup Fellow in Natural Resource Economics from 1989 to 1991. A longstanding and passionate interest in the environment has driven much of Kanazawa’s teaching and he has offered courses and advanced seminars for the economics department and ENTS program in the economics of natural resources and the environment. Interest in the environment has also driven Kanazawa’s scholarship, which has focused primarily on water policy and understanding the legal institutions that have developed over time governing water rights. He has received financial support for his research from numerous sources including the Economic History Association, the Giannini Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the American Philosophical Society, and he has presented the results of his research widely at a variety of professional venues.
The Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Social Sciences was established in 2000 by Wallace R. and Barbara Veach Weitz, members of the Carleton Class of 1970. The Harrison Professorship honors the legacy of the late Carleton professor Ada M. Harrison, who taught economics at Carleton from 1948 to 1983 and is regarded for having been a rigorous, demanding teacher who was anxious to help students do their very best. The professorship recognizes excellence in teaching by Carleton faculty and is intended to enrich the teaching of social sciences at the College.
Michael J. Kowalewski received his BA from Amherst College and his MA and PhD in English literature from Rutgers University. He taught at Princeton University for five years before joining the Carleton English department in 1991. Kowalewski has a wide range of interests in American literature and culture, and a special interest in literary regionalism and the cross-disciplinary notion of "place" in American culture. Kowalewski has written or edited five books and his essays and reviews have appeared in more than a dozen scholarly journals. His book entitled Gold Rush: A Literary Exploration was a companion volume to a PBS documentary and was honored with an Award of Merit by the American Association of State and Local History in 1998. Kowalewski is a past president of the Western Literature Association and he serves on the national Advisory Board of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. This fall will also be his tenth season as the “Voice of the Knights,” the public address announcer for home football games in Laird Stadium.
Inaugurated in 1984, the Lloyd McBride Professorship in Environmental Studies was established in honor of 1930 Carleton graduate and former Carleton trustee Lloyd (Mac) McBride by trustees, friends, and Mr. McBride himself. Sustaining McBride’s deep interest in environmental education, the chair’s purpose is to ensure in perpetuity that Carleton students will have the opportunity to study, in a comprehensive manner, the relationship of human societies and their physical environments and to acquire the background, concepts, and tools necessary for analyzing environmental issues.
Beverly Nagel ‘75 joined the Carleton sociology and anthropology department in 1980, after receiving her BA from Carleton and MA and PhD in sociology from Stanford University. A specialist on Third World development, population, and immigration and ethnicity, she has taught courses in these areas, as well as introductory sociology and social research methods. Nagel’s research focuses on issues of sustainable development, rural social movements, and political ecology in Paraguay. In addition to her scholarly work in Paraguay, she served as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank, and since 1997, as a consultant to Intermon-Oxfam on their rural development programs in Paraguay, focusing especially on programs to promote agroecology and strengthen rural community organization. Nagel has been the Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Social Sciences since 2004. Nagel currently serves as an Associate Dean of the College.
The Winifred and Atherton Bean Professorship in Science, Technology, and Society was created in recognition of the need to resolve the political, economic, and ethical problems that often arise from scientific and technological advances. The Bean family, several individual donors, and International Multifoods Corporation established the Bean chair in 1982. Atherton Bean and Winifred Wollaeger Bean, members of the Carleton Class of 1931, were dedicated Carleton benefactors who also gave of their time and talents selflessly to the College. Mr. Bean, a retired chief executive and chair of International Multifoods, served as a Carleton trustee from 1944 to 1985; he was chair of the board from 1961 to 1968 and trustee emeritus until his death in 1998. Mrs. Bean received Carleton’s alumni service award in 1981.
Mary Elizabeth Savina ‘72 graduated Magna Cum Laude from Carleton with majors in geology and history. Her graduate work in geology was done at the University of California, Berkeley, where she received her MA and PhD. She joined the Carleton faculty in 1978. From 1987 to 1990 she was a lecturer in geology at the Research School of Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Savina teaches a variety of courses dealing with processes active at the surface of the earth, including geomorphology, advanced geomorphology, soils, glacial geology, archaeological geology, hydrology and environmental geology. Students regard her as a demanding, caring, exceptionally knowledgeable teacher, advisor, and mentor, characteristics that were recognized nationally in 1995 when she was awarded the Association for Women Geologists Outstanding Educator Award. She was selected as a National Lecturer from 1994-96 by the Society of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society and was elected to the nominating committee of Section G of the AAAS. She has participated in numerous reviews of other geology and learning/teaching center programs. Savina has been the Lloyd McBride Chair in Environmental Studies since 2002.
Established in 1962, the Charles L. Denison Professorship in Geology was named in honor of a geologist who developed several successful coal, silver, and gold mines in the eastern United States and Canada during the late 1880s and early 1990s. At the time of Denison’s death in 1930, Loren Wood, Carleton Class of 1899 and prominent New York lawyer, was co-trustee of the Denison estate. Knowing his client would approve of the estate being used to train future generations of geologists, Wood established the endowed chair. The professorship has helped Carleton develop one of the preeminent undergraduate geology departments in the nation.
Harry McKinley Williams Jr. joined Carleton’s Department of History in 1989. He earned his BA in journalism from Lincoln University (Mo.), MA in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and PhD in American civilization from Brown University. He was awarded a Certificate in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Stockholm in 1970 and was a Fulbright German Studies Summer Fellow in Berlin in 2000. A specialist in black American cultural and intellectual history, Williams has taught a wide range of courses in this field, including topics in historiography of southern slavery, surveys of African American history, civil rights, hip hop culture, and the black press. Williams has a strong interest in black internationalism. He created and led Carleton’s Ghana program and is currently developing a course on the American Black Panther Party and the Chinese cultural revolution. A passionate and effective teacher and a mentor to decades of students and young colleagues, Williams has been the David and Marian Adams Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Professor of History and the Humanities since 2005.
The Laird Bell Professorship was created in 1966 as a tribute to the faithful stewardship to Carleton by four generations of the Laird and Bell families. William Laird, for whom Laird Hall is named, served as a Carleton trustee from 1883-1910. His son-in-law, Frederic Somers Bell, and grandson, Laird Bell, each served as chair of the Carleton Board of Trustees during their tenures on the board. After receiving an honorary degree from the College and becoming trustee emeritus in 1955, Laird Bell was succeeded by his daughter, Margaret Bell Cameron, who served on the board until 1991 and was trustee emerita until her death in 2000.
Cathy Yandell studied at the Sorbonne, received her BA in French from the University of New Mexico, and earned her MA and PhD in French literature and language from the University of California, Berkeley. She joined the Carleton faculty in 1977. Acclaimed by students and colleagues as one of Carleton’s truly outstanding teachers, Yandell continues to offer intriguing courses along with the full French language sequence. A highly regarded scholar, she is the author of many articles and reviews on French Renaissance literature and French feminist criticism. She completed her book, Carpe Corpus: Time and Gender in Early Modern France in 2000, with the support of an NEH Research Fellowship. Yandell previously held the David and Marian Adams Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities from 1996-1999.
The David and Marian Adams Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities was established in 1992 through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the generosity of Marian Adams Bryn-Jones, Carleton Class of 1923 and former head of the Carleton library staff, and David Bryn-Jones, Carleton professor of economics and political science (1920-1927) and later international relations (1936-1952). The chair honors their many years of service to the College and was intended to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue on the campus and mentoring among faculty in the humanities.