The Department of English is pleased to announce that Professor Elizabeth Weiser has been named an Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor.

The College of Arts and Sciences bestows this honorific title to full professors “whose work has demonstrated significant impact on their fields, students, college and university, and/or the public.” Only 10% of ASC professors may hold this title at any one time, making the selection process exclusive.

Weiser studies the dynamic between identification and division in civic life as a Burkean rhetorical theorist. She has published numerous articles and chapters in journals and monographs in the fields of rhetoric, museum studies, linguistics and education. Her current project, Just Restoration: Rhetoric and Reconciliation in American Museums, examines a dozen new museums run by diverse communities in the American heartland that tell traumatic histories in an attempt to promote healing. She is the only American on the Executive Board of the International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM) and serves as the editor-in-chief of ICOFOM publications, including its biannual journal.

Even though Weiser finds it a cliché to say it was an honor just to be nominated, she is still very moved by the department’s nomination as there is an astounding degree of talent within the department. She has admired and been inspired by earlier ASC distinguished professors. “I am inspired to try to walk in their path for others, too,” she says.

The biggest reason for her surprise, Weiser says, “I might be the only regional faculty member to be an ASC distinguished professor, but I see ‘distinguished’ people all around me, on all our campuses.” She is saddened that the most common response she’s received from regional campus colleagues to this announcement has been, “Wow, my department would never think to nominate me.” She continues, “So, I hope we may have broken a barrier for others, and I am grateful beyond words to be in a department that recognizes all of us as colleagues—across disciplines and subfields, across work priorities and across campuses. It is a hard time to be a humanities scholar, but it’s our resilience together that helps each and all of us to keep thriving.”

Congratulations to ASC Distinguished Professor Elizabeth Weiser on this achievement!