Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A nationally recognized Mississippi State humanities scholar is among only 31 U.S. educators receiving a major 2005 honor from the Fulbright Scholars program.
Nancy D. Hargrove, a Giles Distinguished Professor of English at the university, recently was named a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the international education exchange program. The designation is among the most prestigious awarded by the organization that Congress established in 1946 to enhance mutual understanding among nations of the world.
Hargrove will hold the Fulbright-University of Vienna Distinguished Chair in Humanities and Cultural Studies for the 2005-06 school year. She will teach three upper- and graduate-level courses in American literature, the field in which she has received national attention.
"I've proposed several courses, including American literature of the 1920s, 20th century Southern literature and 20th century American drama," she explained.
Hargrove is no stranger to the program, having been named a Fulbright Fellow on four previous occasions--once as a student and three times since joining the MSU faculty in 1970.
The Charlotte, N.C., native is the author of two books, "Landscape as Symbol in the Poetry of T.S. Eliot," and "The Journey Toward Ariel: Sylvia Plath's Poems of 1956-1959." The former was recognized by the Explicator Literary Foundation as one of the best of 1978, the year it was published.
She currently is working on a third book-length study of Eliot. "'Un Present Parfait': T.S. Eliot and the Cultural Milieu of Paris, 1910-1911" is the tentative title.
"The very competitive Fulbright Distinguished Chair awards recognize significant records of scholarly accomplishment," said Peter Rabideau, MSU provost and vice president for academic affairs. "Dr. Hargrove's selection speaks highly of her contributions in advancing literary studies."
Hargrove's first Fulbright was in 1963-64 to Grenoble, France. After coming to MSU, she was named a Fulbright Junior Lecturer in 1976-77 at Centre Universitaire de Savoie in France. Her last two were as a senior lecturer in 1984-85 at Vrjie Universiteit Brussels in Belgium and 1992 at the University of Lund in Sweden.
In addition to a scholarly publishing record of more than 40 articles and 100 presentations, Hargrove is an award-winning classroom teacher. She has been selected for the Outstanding Teaching, Outstanding Honors Faculty and John Grisham Master Teacher awards at MSU, and for an Excellence in Teaching Award by the South Atlantic Association of Departments of English.
She was named 2000 Mississippi Professor of the Year by the National Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
Hargrove holds an undergraduate degree from Agnes Scott College, a master's from the University of Wisconsin and a doctorate from the University of South Carolina.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information, telephone
Dr. Hargrove at (662) 325-2333.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C., EDITOR: Hargrove is the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. H.M. Duvall Jr. and a Myers Park High School graduate.