Wendy Barker
Pearl LeWinn Endowed Professorship in Creative Writing

Research Area

Poetry and creative writing, nineteenth and twentieth-century literature, women's studies

Endowment Activity

Dr. Barker’s publications include eight collections of poetry, a selection of poems with accompanying essays, a volume of translations from poems in Bengali (with a co-translator), as well as a scholarly book on Emily Dickinson and a co-edited collection of essays on the poet Ruth Stone, in addition to hundreds of poems appearing in journals and reprinted in anthologies. Dr. Barker’s outreach extends far beyond San Antonio’s borders, as she presents readings, talks, and workshops nationally and internationally.

Christopher Ellison
Dean’s Distinguished Professor

Research Area

Religion, spirituality, and health; religion and families, especially intimate relationships and child-rearing; the role of religion in ethnic minority populations in the U.S.; public opinion on race, ethnicity, and immigration in the U.S.

Endowment Activity

Dr. Ellison has published two co-edited books and approximately 185 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals and book chapters. These publications have appeared in each of the leading journals in sociology, as well as other prominent specialty journals in public health, social psychology, religious studies, family studies, political science, and other fields. He has been the recipient of approximately $3.5 million in external grants from a wide range of public agencies and private foundations. Dr. Ellison has held numerous leadership positions in professional and scholarly organizations, and he has been designated as a Highly Cited Researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information.

Daniel J. Gelo
Stumberg Distinguished University Chair

Research Area

Cultural documentation, cultural stasis and change, and identity maintenance among American Indians

Endowment Activity

Dr. Gelo has an active field research program in Texas and Oklahoma and has produced numerous publications and films on such topics as the Comanche Indian language, Tigua Indian ritual and cultural identity, and Southern Plains Indian music. He is author of an entry on Native North Americans in the Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology and of Indians of the Great Plains (Pearson). Dr. Gelo is a recipient of the President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Creative Activity and the Chancellor's Council Outstanding Teaching Award.

Sonja L. Lanehart
Brackenridge Endowed Chair in Literature and the Humanities

Research Area

Sociolinguistics, language and uses of literacy in African American communities, language and identity, Critical Race Theory in language and education, and the educational implications and applications of sociolinguistic research

Endowment Activity

Sonja L. Lanehart is Professor and Brackenridge Endowed Chair in Literature and the Humanities at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She earned her bachelor’s degree and honors in English from the University of Texas at Austin under the direction of Drs. Thomas Cable and Gary Underwood and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor under the direction of Dr. Richard W. Bailey. She is author of Sista, Speak! Black Women Kinfolk Talk about Language and Literacy (2002), editor of Sociocultural and Historical Contexts of African American English (2001), editor of African American Women’s Language: Discourse, Education, and Identity (2009), and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of African American Language (projected 2013). She has organized and hosted NWAV 39 as well as three conferences on African American Language, with a fourth being planned for Fall 2012 on African Americans Navigating the Academy.

Joycelyn K. Moody
Sue E. Denman Distinguished Chair in American Literature

Research Area

African American literatures and cultures, the literatures of US slavery

Endowment Activity

Dr. Moody is building the future of African American studies at UTSA and across the nation. The African American Literatures and Cultures Institute, which Moody directs and funds through her endowment, is an elite residency program designed to prepare promising college juniors for graduate school.

Jeanne C. Reesman
Jack and Laura Richmond Endowed Faculty Fellowship in American Literature

Research Area

Late 19th- and early 20th-century American literature, naturalism, Jack London, Mark Twain

Endowment Activity

Dr. Reesman is an internationally known scholar and prolific writer and researcher with over 40 books published by such presses as Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, University of Georgia, Stanford, and Editions Phebus of Paris. In addition to the Richmond Fellowship, she has been awarded by the U.S. Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation. She directs the Ph.D. Program in English at UTSA.