Members of the Randolph-Macon community gathered in the McGraw-Page Library’s Werner Pavilion on Friday, Oct. 25 to celebrate the installation of Dr. James M. Doering, Professor of Music, as the Shelton H. Short III Professor in the Liberal Arts and Dr. Mathias Bergmann, Professor of History, as the Isaac Newton Vaughan Professor in History.

President Robert R. Lindgren welcomed attendees, including faculty, staff, alumni, and friends and family of Dr. Doering and Dr. Bergmann, and emphasized the importance of relationships between RMC’s faculty members and its students.

“I am always profoundly grateful when an alumna or alumnus conveys to me the personal impact of those relationships, cultivated both while they were here on campus and afterwards,” Lindgren said. “Indeed, I am also proud to acknowledge that these relationships are most often cited by our graduating seniors as RMC’s greatest attribute.”

James M. Doering, Ph.D.

Doering earned his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, an M.M. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a B.M. from the College of Wooster. He joined the Randolph-Macon faculty in the fall of 1999.

Doering’s research interests include film music, the American orchestra, and music and government. His work has been published in a wide array of scholarly journals and featured at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His book, The Great Orchestrator, a biography of the powerful American music manager Arthur Judson, received an AMS-75 award and was selected by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections as a 2014 finalist for Best Historical Research in Classical Music.

Doering received the United Methodist Church Award for Excellence in Teaching at Randolph-Macon College in 2007 and was RMC’s nominee for the Outstanding Faculty Award given by the State Council on Higher Education for Virginia in 2022. He chaired the RMC Department of Arts from 2014-2023, playing a key role in the development of the instrumental music program and the planning of the Center for the Performing Arts.

“Nothing makes clearer the union of his scholarship and artistry than his reconstruction and performance of George Colburn’s 1914 score for Enrico Guazzoni’s film Antony and Cleopatra in 2008,” said Provost Alisa J. Rosenthal, referencing Doering’s performance at the National Gallery of Art’s “Rome’s Ruins Rebuilt” exhibit.

“Jim is always fully prepared, deeply principled, and invariably fair,” Rosenthal added. “As one colleague says, ‘he is the most impressive colleague I have ever worked with at the level of service to this institution.’”

In his remarks, Doering paid homage to Shelton H. Short III’s dedication to a liberal arts education, noting “he embodied the idea of learning from the past while tending to the future.”

“Dr. Short seemed to have a curiosity for all aspects of life. That theme of curiosity is obviously at the core of a liberal arts education. But of course, curiosity has its risks. Rabbit holes, tangents, digressions, detours, so many ways that curiosity can have us wandering into the weeds,” Doering said. “Yet it stands at the center of what we do here. There’s nothing more exciting and inspiring than being around 18-to-22-year-olds when they get curious about an idea and pursue it.”

He also spoke about the role that the arts, and specifically music, play in that central curiosity.

“The arts, and especially the performing arts, offer an ideal laboratory for navigating this challenge of growth under the pressure of time,” Doering said. “Each semester, we put multiple dates on the calendar when we invite the public to experience what our students have learned. The performances become powerful points of reflection for all involved.”

The Shelton H. Short III Professorship in the Liberal Arts

Shelton H. Short III, received his B.A. from Hampden-Sydney College, an M.A. from both the International People’s College in Elsinore, Denmark and the University of Nevada, Reno, and his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He was both a scholar and historian with a deep interest in Virginia’s forests.

Short’s interest in history had a particular focus on RMC’s origins in Boydton, Va., spending years studying RMC namesakes John Randolph and Nathaniel Macon. In 1972, he served as the Patrick Henry Scholar in Residence at Hampden-Sydney. In 1973, he held the position of John Randolph Bicentennial Historian at RMC, and in 1999, he returned as the Nathaniel Macon Scholar and Historian. In 1990, Short married Jean Renner and together, the Shorts created two prominent scholarships at Randolph-Macon, the Honorable Shelton H. Short, Jr. Scholarship and the Shelton H. Short III and Jean Renner Short Scholarship. In 2000, Randolph-Macon bestowed Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters to each of them honoring their commitment to forests, wildlife, historic preservation, humanitarianism, and higher education.

Shelton H. Short III died in 2005. The Dr. Shelton H. Short III Professorship was established in 2010 through the Shelton H. Short, Jr. Trust.

The Shelton H. Short III Professorship in the Liberal Arts was most recently held by Professor Emeritus Beth Fisher.

Mathias Bergmann, Ph.D.

Bergmann earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Washington State University and a B.S. from Eastern Oregon University. He joined the Randolph-Macon faculty in the fall of 2004. 

Bergmann’s research focuses on ethnohistories of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, settler colonialism in the West, and federal Indian policy. He has published on Native American cultural geography in 19th-century Oregon and Washington as well as the centrality of the Chinookans and Kalapuyans to life in frontier Oregon.

Respected and appreciated by students for his rigorous attention to student writing and his dry sense of humor, Bergmann received the Thomas Branch Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2011 and was the College’s nominee for the SCHEV Rising Star Award in 2008. He holds the singular distinction of having served as department chair of three different departments: his home Department of History for six years, the Department of Education for one year, and the Department of Modern Languages for two years.

Rosenthal lauded his mentorship of students, specifically during guided summer research.

“His SURF students describe his ability to balance encouraging their intellectual autonomy with constructive accountability, his engagement in and excitement about their projects, and the timely and thorough feedback he provides at every stage of the process,” Rosenthal said.

Bergmann praised the previous holders of the Vaughan Professorship for setting a precedence of quality teaching and service to the College, while also recognizing his colleagues in the Department of History for their impact on his career.

“It highlights how some of the people to whom I have turned the most for guidance and support have shaped my career here in immeasurable ways,” he reflected.

Bergmann recounted the establishment of the Vaughan Professorship as key for the creation of the history department at Randolph-Macon in the early 20th century.

“The significance of history in higher education, and society in general, remains the same as back then, if not more important than ever,” Bergmann said. “It’s heartening to see and to be able to participate in this commemoration of both history and the humanities in the liberal arts.”

The Isaac Newton Vaughan Professorship in History

Emma Lee Vaughan of Ashland, Virginia endowed the Isaac Newton Vaughan Professorship in 1898 in memory of her husband. At that time, she also created a scholarship in his name. The I.N. Vaughan Professorship was the first endowed professorship at Randolph-Macon and is traditionally awarded to the senior professor of American History.

The Vaughan ties to Ashland and Randolph-Macon have been continuous. Isaac Newton Vaughan served as superintendent of the Sunday School at Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church and was a benefactor to the College. His sons, Ritchie and Isaac, both attended Randolph-Macon. In 1905, Mrs. Vaughan renamed the original scholarship in memory of Ritchie. Members of the Vaughan family, including Mrs. Vaughan’s great-grandson, Walton Vaughan, remain generous supporters of the College.

The Isaac Newton Vaughan Professorship in History was most recently held by Professor Emeritus Mark Malvasi.