Dartmouth recently rewarded eight professors at the College with appointments to endowed chair positions.
The endowed chairs, which range in their origins from the 19th century to the past year, are intended to recognize excellent and active professors and to provide money for their further research.
"[Endowed chair positions] allow us to honor the individual accomplishments of our faculty and to publicly celebrate the creativity and innovation their life's work brings to our students, our curriculum and to broader public," Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt said.
The recent appointments include the creation of a new endowed chair, the Charles Hansen Professorship, which was given to history professor David Lagomarsino to acknowledge teaching and the advancement of liberal education.
Lagomarsino said he uses his research to inform his teaching.
"Not only does research keep teaching alive, but I've found teaching helps research," Lagomarsino said.
The Charles Hansen professorship is one of 25 endowed chairs that will be funded by the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience.
The capital campaign, which is designed to preserve and improve a Dartmouth education, is focusing on the creation of endowed chairs as a way to distribute professors among popular and new fields, said Carrie Pelzel, the College's vice president of development.
"A reason we have endowed chairs is so that we can address new and emerging disciplines and make sure that a Dartmouth education is one that is always a response to emerging fields," Pelzel said.
Among the appointments, the College promoted a creative writing professor to an endowed chair for the first time in the College's history.
Cleopatra Mathis is the new Frederick Sessions Beebe '35 professorship in the art of writing, which was created in 1989.
Mathis, the author of five books of poetry, recognized the appointment as a boost of confidence in her writing and a position that will give her money and opportunities to write in the future.
"The funding will allow me to go to places where I would like to go to write," Mathis said. "It will give me a way to go back to Louisiana, which I write about a lot."
English professor Peter Travis also looked forward to the opportunities he would have to do research as the Henry Winkley Professor in Anglo-Saxon and English language and literature.
Travis considered himself a suitable appointment for the Winkley professorship, which was created in 1879, because of his interest in Anglo-Saxon language and his research on Chaucer.
"If you look at the whole title, it is for the teaching of Anglo-Saxon language and literature," Travis said. "And I do in fact teach Anglo-Saxon language and literature, and I'm the only person in the College who does, and I think that's pretty cool."
Allan Stam, the new Daniel Webster professor, said he tries to bring his research on international relations into the government courses he teaches.
"I make sure my writing informs my teaching of international politics and foreign policy," Stam said. "Good teaching informs scholarship by presenting professors the opportunity to cover new material in new areas."
Gordon Gribble was appointed to the position of Dartmouth's top professor of chemistry in the arts and sciences, which was established in 1992. Biology professor Mary Lou Guerinot assumed the Ronald and Deborah Harris professorship, which was created in 1991.
Other appointments include economics professor Douglas Irwin to the Robert E. Maxwell Professorship, created in 1980, and German studies professor Gerd Gemunden to the Ted and Helen Geisel third century professor in the humanities, created in 1968.
