Thirteen members of the Emory College of Arts and Sciences faculty retired this year, and were recently honored by their peers for their scholarship, teaching and service to the University.
“The faculty retirees this year represent an extraordinary class of scholars and teachers, many of whom played integral roles in the transition of Emory University to a world-class research institution," says Robin Forman, dean of Emory College. "All of us at Emory owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude for their dedicated service, and for their many profound contributions to their departments, their disciplines and to Emory."
The Emory College faculty retirees for 2016 include the following:
Merle Black, Department of Political Science: Asa G. Candler Professor of Politics and Government since 1989, Black is an expert on American politics, especially in the modern-day South, and has been a widely popular media commentator on national politics. He is the author or co-author of numerous books, including his 2002 book with Earl Black, “The Rise of Southern Republicans,” which was named one of the best books of the year by The Economist. His most recent book, also co-authored with Earl Black, was “Divided America: the Ferocious Power Struggle in American Politics,” published in 2006. He was the recipient of the Emory University Scholar-Teacher Award in 1996.
Peter Bing, Department of Classics: Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of the Classics since 2010 and four-time department chair since 1989, Bing specializes in Greek poetry (archaic and Hellenistic), Greek tragedy and comedy, Greek religion and myth, and Roman comedy. He is the author of the 1988 monograph “The Well-Read Muse” and the 2009 book, “The Scroll and the Marble.” He will join the University of Toronto in fall 2016.
Wendy Farley, Department of Religion: Farley’s teaching and research interests include women theologians, religious dialogue, classical texts and contemporary ethical issues. She is the author of four books: “Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion: A Contemporary Theodicy,” (1990); “Eros for the Other: Retaining Truth in a Pluralistic World,” (1996); “The Wounding and Healing of Desire,” (2005); and “Gathering Those Driven Away,” (2011). In 2011, she also edited, with Emily Holmes, a collection of essays entitled, “Women, Writing, Theology: Transforming the Tradition of Exclusion.”
Randy Fullerton, Theater Studies senior lecturer and Center for Creativity and the Arts general manager: Fullerton was one of the first members of Theater Emory when he arrived in 1983. He served several years as an organizer for campus arts initiatives, including development of the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. He taught the popular “Introduction to Theater” course and served as director of undergraduate studies for Theater Studies.
Jonathan Goldberg, Department of English: Goldberg joined the Emory faculty in 2006 as Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, with a specialty in Renaissance literature. Many of his books — including his first, “Endlesse Worke” in 1981 and 2009’s “The Seeds of Things” — focus on that era by asking theoretical, materialist and historicist questions with particular attention to questions of race, gender and sexuality. He is also the author of a book on Willa Cather and an editor on various anthologies and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's posthumous “The Weather in Proust,” (2011). His latest book, “Melodrama: An Aesthetics of Impossibility,” is set to be published later this year.
Ronald Gould, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science: Gould is the Goodrich C. White Professor and the recipient of the Mathematical Association of America’s Southeastern Section Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008. His research is mostly focused in extremal graph theory. He is best known for his work on path and cycle problems, as well as problems dealing with matchings, connectivity, coloring and classic Turan type extremal theory. He has authored more than 135 research papers and serves on the editorial board of several journals dealing with discrete mathematics. He won a 2010 American Library Association Choice Award for his 2009 book, “Mathematics in Games, Sports, and Gambling: Games People Play.”
Carole Hahn, Division of Educational Studies: The Charles Howard Candler Professor of Educational Studies, Hahn’s teaching focus has been on social studies education and comparative education, while her research has included cross-national studies of citizenship education, gender issues and social studies. Her 1998 book, “Becoming Political: Comparative Perspectives on Citizenship Education,” won that year’s Jubilee Award from the Danish Secondary Teachers’ Union. She was also editor of the 2008 SAGE International Handbook on Education for Citizenship and Democracy. She won the 1996 Exemplary Research Award from the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), and was the winner of the 2005 NCSS Jean Dresden Grambs Distinguished Career Research in Social Studies Award.
Ann Hartle, Department of Philosophy: Hartle’s research focuses on the nature of philosophy and early modern philosophy. She was a 1982-1983 Fellow with the National Endowment for the Humanities and a 2003-2004 Senior Fellow at the Center for Humanistic Inquiry. She has written extensively about Michel de Montaigne, including 2007’s “Accidental Philosopher" and 2013’s “Montaigne and the Origins of Modern Philosophy.”
Wan-Li Ho, Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Culture: A senior lecturer and the Chinese Program Language Coordinator, Ho joined Emory’s faculty in 2001 and has since taught modern Chinese language, ecology and Chinese religion, and a first-year seminar on Mind and Body in China. She has written or co-authored several books, including 1998’s “The Tao of Jesus: An Experiment in Inter-Traditional Understanding," and 2016’s “Ecofamilism: Women, Religion, and Environmental Protection in Taiwan.”
Harvey Klehr, Department of Political Science: The Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Politics and History, Klehr is a groundbreaking scholar on the Cold War, specializing in political theory and 20th century political ideologies, with a research focus on American communism and Soviet espionage in America. He is the 1993 winner of the Emory Williams Teaching Award, the 1995 winner of the Emory University Scholar-Teacher of the Year and the Thomas Jefferson Award in 1999. Author or co-author of 15 books, his most recent are 2014’s “The Secret Cables of Comintern” and 2009’s “Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America.”
James Roark, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of American History: Roark has been Emory College’s expert on the 18th and 19th century American South since arriving on campus in 1983. He has twice served as department chair and is author of 1977’s “Masters Without Slaves: Southern Planters in the Civil War and Reconstruction,” and co-author of 1984’s “Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South.” He is also co-author of textbook “The American Promise,” which is about to release its 7th edition.
Harry Rusche, Department of English: Rusche has combined his long interest in teaching and research of poetry, art and Shakespeare in his 54-year tenure at Emory. He is responsible for the first grants and computers that developed into the Emory College Writing Center and has won multiple awards for his teaching. He also created and developed three online scholarship projects — Shakespeare and the Players, Shakespeare Illustrated, and The Great War, 1914-1918 — that will continue after he leaves campus.
Richard Patterson, Department of Philosophy: Patterson is the former program director in Classical Studies at Emory (1987-1993) whose research focus is ancient philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, symbolic logic and philosophy of art and science. He was a 1985-1986 National Center for the Humanities Fellow and a 1989 Fellow with the Institute for Advanced Study. His most recent book is 2013’s “Presocratics and Plato,” which is co-edited with two other scholars.
Judith Rohrer, Department of Art History: Rohrer joined Emory’s faculty in 1988, teaching 19th and 20th century painting, sculpture and architecture. Her research focus is European architecture, both modern and contemporary, with emphasis on the architecture of Barcelona. She is the co-author of 1989’s “Architecture Between the House and the City.”