Dr. Allison Chestnut, a professor of language and literature, was selected as William Carey University’s recipient of the 2017 Humanities Teacher Award presented by the Mississippi Humanities Council.
Each year the Mississippi Humanities Council recognizes a faculty member at each institution of higher learning in the state during October, which is Arts and Humanities Month. Chestnut will receive a $300 honorarium from the Mississippi Humanities Council at a Feb. 16 luncheon honoring teachers from across the state.
As part of the award requirement, the recipient must make a public presentation based on scholarly research or current humanities interest. Dr. Stuart Rockoff, the Mississippi Humanities Counsel executive director, was on hand to recognize Dr. Chestnut on Oct. 11 as she presented “A Spinster’s Guide to Social Subversion and Other Stories.”
Dr. Myron Noonkester, dean of the Noonkester School of Arts and Humanities, introduced Dr. Chestnut. “Allison is a remarkable colleague,” he said. “She is someone who is always willing to work in a variety of settings – teaching, researching, scholarship – and is vitally interested in a variety of forms of human expression.”
Dr. Chestnut has academic training and classical experience in music, English, religion, and theatre, and has presented papers and creative works at South Atlantic Modern Language Association and the Conference on Christianity and Literature, among others. She has been a guest lecturer in China, Korea, India, and Brazil. As a member of the Phyllis Merritt Singers, she has performed at the Pentagon, the National Cathedral, the National Holocaust Memorial Museum, and with the Baton Rouge Symphony and the Baton Rouge Opera. She is a graduate of Mississippi University for Women and received her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. She will complete the MFA in creative writing from Mississippi University for Women in August 2018. Dr. Chestnut has been part of the William Carey University faculty for 25 years.
“Many thanks to the Mississippi Humanities Council and to my colleagues at William Carey University for the honor this year of representing the area of arts and humanities at this institution,” Chestnut said. “There may be only one individual standing before you today, but Carey has many advocates in humanities and arts who each day encourage millennial students in the fine tradition of a liberal arts education. I am both proud and humbled to be counted among them.”
Dr. Noonkester said Arts and Humanities Month and the MHC presentations allow the university to feature the faculty and staff as they present the results of their scholarship and teaching. “It reminds us, and the general public, of the importance of the different aspects of the humanities,” he said. “It is wonderful to have the opportunity to dedicate ourselves to the human condition.”
The Mississippi Humanities Council is a private non-profit corporation that provides public programs in traditional liberal arts disciplines to serve nonprofit groups in Mississippi to further the study of history, literature, religion, languages, philosophy, and culture.
Written by Abbey Johnson, Carey Scholar | Media Relations Office