July 05, 2006
Winston-Allen named department chair
CARBONDALE, Ill. Anne Winston-Allen, associate professor of German at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is the new chair of the foreign language and literature department.
Winston-Allen, a full-time faculty member since 1992, replaces Frederick Betz, who is retiring after 28 years at SIUC and the past seven years as chair of the department. Winston-Allen's three-year term as chair began July 1.
Betz said Winston-Allen is the natural successor.
"She served as German section head and as a member of key standing and ad hoc committees in recent years, and has in the process gained great respect from the department faculty for her always thoughtful, considerate and balanced contributions to faculty discussions and debates concerning policies and practices of the department," said Betz.
Winston-Allen is also an accomplished scholar. Her research focuses on medieval times. In 2004, she published a study of chronicles and other texts by women in the 15th and early 16th centuries titled "Convent Chronicles: Women Writing about Women and Reform in the Late Middle Ages." The study is a resource to scholars as well as to graduate and undergraduate students interested in the history of women's monasticism and religious writing.
Winston-Allen is now studying the production and exchange of art in women's convents in the late Middle Ages. Her work has taken her to Germany, France and England.
In 2000, Winston-Allen received an SIUC Women's Studies and University Women's Professional Advancement Research Grant.
"I have no doubt that she will be a fine department chair," said Betz. "I wish her all the best in her new leadership role."
Winston-Allen said Betz is a hard act to follow. "Knowing how hard my predecessor works, I was reluctant to take the job," she said.
Her goals are to prepare and encourage more students to go abroad. "Studying in Germany was for me as a student the most rewarding experience of my college education, no, of my life and I am absolutely committed to helping more SIUC students have that kind of experience," said Winston-Allen.
The new chair also wants to institute placement tests for all the languages and help faculty reach their potential in teaching and research.
Winston-Allen, a native of Pasadena, Calif., earned her bachelor's degree from California State University, Los Angeles, a master's degree from University of Oklahoma and her doctoral degree from the University of Kansas.
Providing for succession at every level of the University is among the goals of Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment, the blueprint for the development of the University by the time it celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2019.