Julia Jordan-Zachery will join WFU faculty as chair of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department
The following is a guest post from the Office of the Dean of the College. 
Professor Julia Jordan-Zachery will be joining the faculty as chair of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department in July. Jordan-Zachery is a leading voice on Black feminism and public policy, having published six books within the field including “Shadow Bodies: Black Women, Ideology, and Representation” (Rutgers University Press, 2017) and co-edited “Black Girl Magic Beyond the Hashtag: Twenty-First-Century Acts of Self-Definition” (Arizona University Press, 2019) and “Black Political Women: Demanding Citizenship, Challenging Power, and Seeking Justice” (SUNY University Press, 2018). Her first publication, “Black Women, Cultural Images and Social Policy” (Routledge, 2010) won the W. E. B. Dubois Best Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and the Anna Julia Cooper Outstanding Book Publication Award by the Association for the Study of Black Women in Politics.
“I am thrilled that Julia Jordan-Zachery is joining Wake Forest University’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. Julia is a noted scholar of Black feminism, an exceptional teacher-scholar, a practitioner of the engaged liberal arts through her important community justice work, and if all those amazing and welcome attributes were not enough, she will be serving as the next WGSS department chair. Students and faculty alike will all benefit from Julia’s powerful mind, deep dedication to substantive student learning, and impressive leadership skills. The WGSS Department could not have found a more exceptional and well-suited scholar for this critical role,” Dean of the College Michele Gillespie said.
Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities Corey D. B. Walker. Walker, inaugural director of the Program in African American Studies at Wake Forest, said, “I am excited to be reunited with a dear friend and committed intellectual. Black feminist studies is foundational to African American studies and to a liberal arts education. With Julia, we will continue to challenge ourselves as teachers and scholars to realize a broader and deeper understanding of Pro Humanitate.”
Read more about Jordan-Zachery, including a Q&A, on the College News website.
Categories: Faculty News, Guest Post, Inside WFU
Franco awarded the new 'Palmer Professorship in Literature'
Dean Franco, Professor of English and Director of the Humanities Institute at Wake Forest University, has been awarded the new Winifred W. Palmer Professorship in Literature.
Arnold Palmer’s Trust funded the professorship in memory of Palmer’s late wife. Her passion for literature will be remembered through this generous gift.
Dean of the College Michele Gillespie chose Franco for his outstanding excellence within the English Department and his tireless pursuit of scholarship, mentorship and leadership.
“Dean Franco is a superb example of the consummate teacher-scholar at Wake Forest. He is a dedicated, demanding teacher; a senior scholar who has shaped his field of 20th century American Literature, and especially American Ethnic Studies; and deeply committed to the equity and wellbeing of our community and the broader community we live in,” Gillespie said.
Franco, who joined the English Department in 2001, has served in a variety of roles, including associate chair from 2010 to 2016. His third book, “The Border and the Line: Race, Literature, and Los Angeles,” was published in January; and he continues to draft, edit and peer review essays and journal submissions. He co-authored the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for the Engaged Liberal Arts awarded in 2018. He serves as a noted scholar on panels and as a guest lecturer on topics involving race and literature. Most recently, he presented the lecture, “On Race, Scale and Literary History,” at Indiana University Oct. 10.
Inside the classroom, Franco devotes his attention to his students, from their first year through graduation. His first-year seminars on such topics as “Inauthentic, Abnormal and Queer: Social Values in Art, Literature and Film,” “The Sacred and Secular in Public Life,” and “Uncertainty” have expanded the worldview for incoming students and provided an introduction to the Pro Humanitate motto that all Wake Forest students strive to achieve. He continues to mentor and guide English majors through their intellectual pursuits while also serving as the founding director for the Jewish Studies minor that began in 2014. Franco also contributes to the campus community through his role as the director of the Humanities Institute, which establishes programs and provides funding for University faculty in the humanities and other fields of study engaging in humanistic inquiry and scholarship.
Jessica Richard, chair of the English department, calls Franco an invaluable colleague and an exceptional contributor to the department, College and University.
“In his most recent book, Dean Franco examines ‘how we all live in relational proximity to our neighbors,’ and his commitment to understanding what divides and unites us is also the bedrock of his work at Wake Forest,” Richard said. “From his role as a co-founder and current director of the Humanities Institute to his department leadership and his classroom teaching, Dean models how literary study enables us to connect across difference. We’re thrilled to see his nationally recognized scholarship and his outstanding campus leadership and teaching recognized with this professorship.”
Categories: University Announcement
Campus Connections to be held April 10
Vice President for Campus Life Penny Rue and Dean of the College Michele Gillespie will speak April 10 at Campus Connections, hosted by Provost Rogan Kersh and Executive Vice President Hof Milam.
Campus Connections will take place from 8:45 to 10 a.m. in Benson University Center, Room 401. A light breakfast will be available.
Rue’s presentation is entitled “Hot Topics Update.” Gillespie’s is entitled “Inclusive Excellence in the College.”
An update on the Arts Council campaign will be provided, too.
Categories: Events, Inside WFU
Faculty Drive neighborhood remains an integral part of the Wake Forest community
This is a guest post from Alex Abrams, communications coordinator in the Office of the Dean of the College:
A large historical marker stands at the corner of Faculty Drive and Timberlake Lane, just across the street from where Wake Forest University’s Department of Biology is housed inside Winston Hall.
The words “Welcome To Historic Wake Forest Neighborhood – Est. 1956” are etched into the metal historical marker, which has been painted old gold and black like other signs posted around campus.
Just past the marker, one- and two-story houses line the five quiet streets that make up the neighborhood. The houses range in style, with some exteriors made of brick and others covered with wood. Large trees in each yard provide both shade on a hot afternoon and a limb for the occasional tree swing.
Martha Allman, WFU’s Dean of Admissions, got a sense of the neighborhood during her four years living on campus as an undergraduate student. Her freshman advisor had a house on Royall Drive and hosted a dinner for students during Orientation.
“I had this very idealized feeling about that neighborhood and how wonderful it would be to live there,” Allman said.
In 2001, Allman and her husband moved their two young daughters into a yellow house on Faculty Drive. Their neighbors include a “Who’s Who” list of WFU administrators, professors, and staff members who also enjoy living on campus, walking to work, and hosting students in their homes.
The Historic Wake Forest Neighborhood was started the same year WFU moved its campus to Winston-Salem as a place for faculty who had relocated to live. It has since grown into a tight-knit community where dozens of university employees have raised their children just down the street from Wait Chapel for more than 50 years.
“Over here faculty members are our next-door neighbors, and the fact that one faculty member was a historian, another one was a psychologist, another one was a physicist, that’s tremendously important,” said Ed Wilson, the longtime English professor and Provost who is affectionately known as Mr. Wake Forest.
“And of course it made our children grow up with the idea that it was important to go to college, and if they could, it was important to do well.”
Wilson still lives in the same four-bedroom house that he and his wife, Emily, built on Timberlake Lane in 1964. He raised his three children there. He can still remember the different routes he used to walk every day to reach his favorite spots on campus, including his office in Tribble Hall.
Categories: Inside WFU
Mellon Foundation awards $850,000 grant to Wake Forest for humanities
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Wake Forest University an $850,000 grant to expand its community-based partnerships through engaged teaching and research in the humanities. The four-year grant will support “The Humanities Engaged: Generating Learning, Remaking Community” through June 2022.
At a time when many institutions are shifting attention away from the humanities, Wake Forest has stepped up its efforts to reaffirm its distinctive liberal arts mission where faculty and students confront big questions in innovative ways.
“As Wake Forest continues to enhance its considerable strengths in the humanities, we are deeply grateful for the Mellon Foundation’s longstanding and exemplary support for path-breaking work in these disciplines,” said Dean of the College Michele Gillespie. “This grant will give us exciting new ways to extend our teaching and scholarship and engage in real-world problem-solving, preserve the rich history of Winston-Salem, and align our research with topics relevant to community partners.”
More information here.
Categories: Inside WFU, University Announcement
