Randolph-Macon College President Robert R. Lindgren and Provost Alisa J. Rosenthal are pleased to announce the appointment 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.

Named professorships are among the most significant forms of recognition of achievement that a Randolph-Macon faculty member can receive. The installation ceremony for these professorships will occur on Friday, Oct. 25 at 4 p.m. in the Werner Pavilion of the McGraw-Page Library.

About Dr. James M. Doering

Doering earned his Ph.D. in Musicology from Washington University in St. Louis, an M.M. in Piano Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a B.M. in Piano Performance from the College of Wooster. He joined the Randolph-Macon faculty in the fall of 1999 as Assistant Professor of Music, was awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2005, and was promoted to the rank of Professor in 2010. The Shelton H. Short III Professorship was most recently held by Professor Emeritus Beth Fisher, who served with distinction and honor before retiring in 2023. 

Doering’s research interests include film music, the American orchestra, and music and government. A prolific scholar, his work has appeared in American Music, Bach: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Journal of the Society for American Music, The Musical Quarterly, and Notes. His scholarship on silent film accompaniment was featured at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where he performed the complete original score to Enrico Guazzoni’s Antony and Cleopatra as part of the Gallery’s Roman Ruins Rebuilt exhibit in 2008. His book, The Great Orchestrator (University of Illinois Press, 2013), 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 (ARSC) as a 2014 finalist for Best Historical Research in Classical Music. Doering served as a two-term chair of the Capital Chapter of the American Musicological Society (2017-2021) and is active in the American Musicological Society and the Society for American Music.

Doering has taught a broad array of courses at RMC, ranging from the Music Theory and Music History sequences to The Politics of Music, Defining and Defending Music, The Sound of Numbers, and Film Music in Japan, a January-term course taught in Japan. 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 (SCHEV) in 2022.

Long recognized as a faculty leader, Doering currently serves as a Presidential Search Committee member, as Chair of the Committee on the Faculty for the third time, and on the Faculty Executive Committee. 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. He also served 14 years (2001-2015) as principal organist at Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church in Ashland, in addition to currently serving as a board member for the Silent Film Music and Sound Archive, the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, and the Ashland Theatre.

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.

About Dr. Mathias Bergmann

Dr. Bergmann earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Washington State University and a B.S. in History from Eastern Oregon University. He joined the Randolph-Macon faculty in the fall of 2004 as Assistant Professor of History, was awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2011, and was promoted to the rank of Professor in 2017. The Isaac Newton Vaughan Professorship was most recently held by Professor Emeritus Mark Malvasi, who served with distinction and honor before his retirement in 2024. 

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 articles 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. He regularly advises students in yearlong senior theses and SURF summer research on topics as varied as the representation of Native Americans in Virginia museums, a textual analysis of liberty in revolutionary Virginia, and the Nahua social experience in early colonial Mexico. 

This breadth of interests is similarly reflected in the diversity of courses Dr. Bergmann has taught at RMC, a lengthy list that includes The Holy Roman Empire, European Warfare & Slavery, Native American History, Virginia History, and Colonial and Modern Latin America. 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. 

Bergmann has a record of significant service and leadership. 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 three years. His broad experience and perspective lead faculty and chairs across the College to seek his advice and mentoring. He served on the Committee on the Faculty for two terms, including as chair for three years, and presently serves on the Professional Conduct Committee. Outside of the College, he serves as Treasurer and member of the Board of Directors of the Virginia Forum. 

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.