Two SUNY New Paltz professors to be honored for research

NEW PALTZ — State University of New York at New Paltz professors Dr. Katherine L. French and Patricia C. Phillips have both been selected as recipients of the Chancellor’s Research Recognition Award. French and Phillips will be invited to the dinner honoring researchers in humanities, arts and social sciences on Dec. 16, at the State University Plaza in Albany.

This is the second annual dinner held to honor SUNY faculty research and scholarship in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The President of each SUNY campus nominates faculty they believe worthy of this honor. Steven Poskanzer, Interim President of SUNY New Paltz said he was delighted to see the quality of New Paltz’s faculty recognized in this way.

“Katherine French is a most distinguished historian and a gifted teacher,” said Poskanzer, “while Patricia Phillips has attained a national reputation as a particularly thoughtful and trenchant commentator on the arts.”

French was chosen for her writing and research focusing on late medieval English religious history and the history of women, and the ways that social forces such as class, gender, wealth, and regional variation shape the practice of Christianity at the local level.

In 1997-98, French was a Research Fellow and Visiting Lecturer in Women’s Studies in the History of Christianity at the Harvard Divinity School. Currently, she is engaged in a National Endowment for the Humanities, a yearlong fellowship for college teachers at the Institute for Advanced Study, where she is a visiting scholar. She is the former chair of the history department at New Paltz and teaches a range of classes on medieval European history and women’s history.

Phillips was chosen for her research and critical writing in contemporary public art, architecture, sculpture, landscape, and how these areas intersect. In July 2002, following a national search, she was appointed the Executive Editor of the Art Journal, a quarterly publication on contemporary art published by the College Art Association.

Also, Phillips serves on the editorial advisory boards of Sculpture and Public Art Review, and is chairperson of the Board of Directors of Minetta Brook, a public art organization based in New York.

In 1991, Phillips was named chair of the Art Department at SUNY New Paltz. In 1996-97, she served as interim dean of the School of Fine & Performing Arts and from 1997-2002 she served as dean.

Approximately 30 – 40 honorees and their guests will attend the cocktail reception and dinner. During the dinner, a bio of the person is read and the Chancellor presents him or her with a plaque.