Three Faculty Members Named to Professorships

The Board of Trustees at Carleton College has announced the appointment of three faculty members to endowed professorships.

Robert Tisdale, a 35-year member of Carleton’s English department faculty, has been named the Marjorie Crabb Garbisch Professor of English and the Liberal Arts. The professorship was established by a generous gift from Richard G. Garbisch of the class of 1938 in memory of his wife, Marjorie, a devoted and active member of the class of 1939. It recognizes and honors an outstanding faculty member whose teaching, personal qualities, and service to Carleton reflect the importance of personal responsibility in maintaining the vitality and strength of the College.

Tisdale earned his B.A. in philosophy from Princeton University, his M.A.T. (teaching) from Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. in English from Yale University. He joined the Carleton faculty in 1966 and has taught a wide range of courses in English and American literature, writing and American studies. He is a published poet and has held numerous leadership positions at Carleton, including department chair and director of American studies. He also has served as associate dean of the college and acting dean of the college, and this fall will be the faculty mentor for Carleton’s first Posse Foundation student group. He has led off-campus studies programs in London and Ireland, and he taught in Carleton’s Institute for Teachers of Talented Students for many years.

Two faculty members have been named to endowed professorships honoring William H. Laird, a lumberman and philanthropist who served on Carleton’s Board of Trustees from 1883 to 1910, the last ten years as its chair. Anne Patrick, professor and chair of religion, has been appointed the William H. Laird Professor of Religion and the Liberal Arts and Nancy Wilkie, professor of classics and anthropology, is now the William H. Laird Professor of Classics, Anthropology and the Liberal Arts.

Patrick earned her B.A. in English from Medaille College in Buffalo, N.Y., and her M.A. in English from the University of Maryland. She received her M.A. in divinity and her Ph.D. in religion and literature from the University of Chicago. She belongs to the order of the Sisters of the Holy Names and joined the Carleton faculty in 1980. Patrick is the author of a book titled “Liberating Conscience: Feminist Explorations in Catholic Moral Theology,” and has published dozens of articles and reviews on ethics, theology, women and the Church, George Eliot, and other topics in fiction and religion. She currently is vice president of the International Network of Societies for Catholic Theology and has begun work on a new book of essays in feminist moral theology.

Wilkie has taught at Carleton since 1974. She earned her A.B. degree in classics from Stanford University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Greek and history from the University of Minnesota. She teaches in both the classics and the sociology/anthropology departments and is a founding co-director of the archaeology concentration. Wilkie is an active archaeologist. Since 1985, she has been director of the Grevena Project in Greece. Before that she was active in the Naukratis Project, the Minnesota Messenia Expedition, and the Phokis-Doris Expedition. She has edited three books and published numerous articles and currently is serving a four-year term as president of the Archaeological Institute of America. In addition, she has been a member of the managing committee for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and she served two terms on the Executive Board of the Society of Professional Archaeologists. At Carleton, Wilkie has taught beginning Greek language, Greek literature, archaeology methods, and an anthropology course on human evolution and pre-history.