10/19/11
 |
(l. to r.) President Robert R. Lindgren, Provost William T. Franz, Alan Rashkind '69, A.G. Ingram '61, Professor Thomas Peyser |
Randolph-Macon College Professor Thomas G. Peyser is the new A.G. Ingram Professor of
English. Peyser was invested in the Ingram Endowed Professorship at a ceremony on Friday, October 14 in the
McGraw-Page Library. Staff, faculty, students, alumni and friends attended the event, as did Alexis Gordon Ingram ’61, for whom the professorship is named.
Click on A.G. Ingram Professorship to view a slideshow of photos from the event. The A. G. Ingram Professorship in English, established in 1998 by Alexis Gordon Ingram, recognizes a senior member of the English department for exemplary teaching and scholarship. Ingram retired in 1998 after 30 years with Wheat First Union and is the co-owner of Ingram Construction Company in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He is a member of the R-MC President’s Society and the Heritage Society and a former member of the Board of Associates.
Alan Rashkind ’69, chair of the R-MC Board of Trustees, welcomed guests, and President Robert R. Lindgren lauded Peyser’s important role in the R-MC community.
“Your teaching, your scholarship and service, and your role as mentor to faculty and students within the department of English and throughout the college, eminently qualify you to hold this most impressive
Randolph-Macon professorship,” said Lindgren.
Provost William T. Franz told attendees that Peyser is known at R-MC as “the absolute czar of English grammar and usage,” but noted that his reputation extends far beyond the college. “Students in countless schools across our nation know Professor Peyser as Yossarian the Grammarian in his popular YouTube videos,” said Franz, and the audience was treated to a clip of one of the videos.
Peyser joined the faculty at R-MC in 1994. He earned his A.B. from Harvard University, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. At R-MC, he has taught classes ranging from Grammar for Readers, Writers, and Teachers to contemporary American Literature and British Literature of the Twentieth Century. He also serves the college as director of writing and in this capacity provides support to the First Year Experience program and the office of the provost.
Peyser’s research interests include economics and literature, the novel, and American Literature. His publications, which include two books,
W.W. (Xlibris, 2000) and
Utopia and Cosmopolis: Globalization in the Era of American Literary Realism (Duke University Press, 1998), have been described by peers as “dazzling” and for having “the signal virtue of thinking beyond the pieties of contemporary critical practice.” His scholarship is complemented by regular contributions in the popular press, including Richmond’s
Style Weekly. Previous holders of the Ingram Professorship were Professor Ritchie C. Watson (1999-2008) and Professor Theodore F. Sheckels Jr. (2008-2011).