Hall Center names Joyce and Elizabeth Hall distinguished professor

LAWRENCE -- Susan K. Harris will join the faculty at the University of Kansas as the Joyce and Elizabeth Hall distinguished professor of American literature and culture this fall.

Harris will be a member of the English department at KU, will provide campus leadership in literary studies and humanities, and will contribute to the mission of the Hall Center for the Humanities, which fosters interdisciplinary study and excellence in the humanities. Harris also will serve on the Hall Center's Executive Committee, utilizing her long experience of communicating and defending the humanities.

Harris, a specialist in 19th-century American literature, notably Mark Twain's writings, has a master's degree in communications from Stanford University and a master's degree in English and a doctorate in English and history from Cornell University. She has taught at Queens College, City University of New York and the Pennsylvania State University. In July 2000, Harris was the Alice Holmes Institute Fellow at KU.

Her books include "19th-Century American Women's Novels" (Cambridge University Press, 1990) and "The Courtship of Olivia Langdon and Mark Twain" (CUP, 1996). Palgrave/St. Martin's Press will publish "Annie Adams Fields, Mary Gladstone Drew, and the Work of the Late 19th-Century Hostess" this year. She also edited Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (Houghton Mifflin, 2000). In addition, she has written more than 20 articles, essays and chapters on Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and American women's fiction.

She has served in an editorial and/or advisory capacity on "Leviathan: the Melville Society Journal," the Society for the Study of American Women Writers, "The Oxford Reader's Companion to Mark Twain" and "Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers." She also has been active in the Modern Language Association. At Queens College, she directed the women's studies program and was associate chair of the English department; at Penn State University, she was director of graduate studies in the English department.

The Hall Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture is the first fruit of the Hall Family Foundation's historic gift to the humanities in June 2001. The gift, which counts toward the $500 million goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history, provided the endowment to create this distinguished professorship.

Harris' appointment provided the opportunity for KU to attract her husband, William J. Harris, who also has been appointed to the English department. He has a master's degree in creative writing and a doctorate in English and American literature from Stanford University. He has taught at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and the Pennsylvania State University.

His books include "The Poetry and Poetics of Amiri Baraka: The Jazz Aesthetic" (University of Missouri Press, 1985); his editions include "Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition" (Houghton Mifflin, 1997) and "The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader" (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991; 2nd edition, 1999).

His poetry has appeared in many magazines and anthologies. He is an advisory editor for the "African American Review" and "The Norton Anthology of Afro-American Literature." In 1997, he received the Penn State College of the Liberal Arts Outstanding Teacher Award.

"The additions of Susan Harris and Billy Joe Harris to the humanities faculty is a coup for the university," said KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway. "Susan's appointment to the Hall chair brings us a distinguished scholar of Mark Twain. With her we gain the added bonus of attracting Billy Joe, a poet and scholar of African American literature."