Hendrix College recently appointed three professors to distinguished professorships, replacing long-time faculty members who are retiring. Distinguished professorships carry an increase in salary as well as access to professional development funds and are typically held until retirement.
The three new Distinguished Professors, who will be formally installed during a convocation on Sept. 18, include Dr. Jay Barth, Dr. Ian King and Dr. Jay McDaniel.
Jay Barth ’87 has been named the M. E. and Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of Politics. An associate professor of politics, Barth received a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a specialization in Southern politics in the 20th century. He was a recipient in 2000-2001 of the Steiger Congressional Fellowship awarded by the American Political Science Association, and in 1998 was presented the American Political Science Foundation and Pi Sigma Alpha Award for Outstanding Teaching in Political Science. He has received the Faculty Appreciation Award, presented by the Senior Class of Hendrix College, four times, and in 2007 was named the Arkansas Teacher of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation. Among his extensive publications is Arkansas Politics and Government: Do the People Rule? (2nd edition 2005, U. of Nebraska Press), co-authored with the late Diane D. Blair of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He joined the Hendrix faculty in 1994. Barth succeeds Professor of English Bland Crowder, who entered phased retirement in 2007, as the holder of the Peace Professorship.
The new Harold and Lucy Cabe Distinguished Professor of Politics and International Relations is Ian King. King received his B.A. from the University of Hull (England) and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, joining the Hendrix faculty in 1985 and has served twice as department chair. A Fulbright-Hays Fellow to Egypt in 1997, he is the author of four books, most recently The Political Theory of Darwinism: Zoon Politikon and the Evolutionary Case for Social Democracy (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008). He received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1989 and the Exemplary Teachers Award from the Council on Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church in 1989. The previous holder of the Cabe Professorship was Professor of History Garrett McAinsh, who is retiring at the end of the 2007-2008 academic year.
Jay McDaniel, who holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University, is the new Willis T. Holmes Professor of Religion. A member of the Hendrix faculty since 1979, McDaniel is currently chair of the Department of Religion and Director of the Steel Center for the Study of Religion and Philosophy. With a specialty in Process or Whiteheadian thought, McDaniel has authored or edited eight books, including With Roots and Wings: Christianity in an Age of Ecology and Dialogue, Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism, and Gandhi’s Hope: Learning from Other Religions as a Path to Peace. He has been instrumental in establishing an exchange program between Hendrix and Heilongjiang University in Harbin, China. As holder of the Holmes Professorship, McDaniel succeeds Professor of Chemistry Warfield Teague, who is retiring at the end of the 2007-2008 academic year.
These three join three continuing holders of distinguished professorships at Hendrix: Dr. Tom Goodwin, Elbert E. Fausett Distinguished Professor of Chemistry; Dr. Bruce Haggard, Virginia A. McCormick Pittman Distinguished Professor of Biology; and Dr. Alice Hines, C. Louis and Charlotte Cabe Professor of English.