Janet Ikeda, Associate Professor of Japanese, meeting with a student.

Note from the Dean

Many doubted we would still have our students in Lexington six weeks into the term, but here we are. On Labor Day, I visited roughly twenty-five classes meeting in-person, and I was inspired by the range of creative pedagogies on display. You are stretching in your various course delivery methods to make this unique term meaningful for our students. As you complete midterm grades, I encourage you to be in touch with class deans if you detect challenges that grades may not disclose. This is a stressful time. Consider meeting students outside for office hours before the weather turns too cold for rare glimpses of their entire faces.

Likewise, I welcome you to join me on the Simpson House front porch. Opportunities for in-person conversation remind us of the importance of human connection. "We wear the mask" in order to learn together as a community rather than to hide our true feelings, so please be in touch with each other as well. The release valve collegial contact provides is priceless, even if our exchanges are restricted to safe zones that feel unfamiliar. Let's protect what we most treasure at W&L.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Emily King, Scholar-in-Residence

Emily King is spending the 2020-21 academic year at W&L. She is also Associate Professor of English at Louisiana State University. Emily specializes in early modern English drama, literature, and culture, placing particular emphasis on emotion, violence, and communitarian bonds. Her first book, Civil Vengeance (Cornell UP, 2019), reorients the concept of revenge in relation to civility and uncovers an exciting archive of revenge literature in the English early modern period. Emily is currently working on her second book, Second Acts: Reanimation in the English Renaissance. This project extends her study of the social body, early modern science, and regeneration to trace postmortem liveliness through the period. Emily also enjoys hiking and running through the beautiful Shenandoah Valley with her spouse, Diego Millan, Assistant Professor of English & Africana Studies.