In April, at a “celebration of the humanities” event, faculty and staff from the School of Humanities and Sciences honored Twomey and others (see the spotlight on Michael Trotti) for their work in the humanities. Twomey’s remarks at the event included the following:
“Because I’ve been involved in several honor societies on campus, I’ve had occasion to make speeches about the meaning of honor, but I’ve always been in the position of commenting on honors that someone else has received. Now it’s time to apply the moral of the story to myself.
“[We] rarely find literature written after the Roman Empire that has anything good to say about honor. The medieval writers that I teach are universally suspicious of it. In the Inferno, Dante’s imaginary journey through hell, there is a scene where Dante represents himself as a younger man meeting the great writers of the ancient world, and he has the great writers crown his younger self with a laurel wreath, signifying that he is now one of them. Although the idea of socializing with the great classical authors is certainly very appealing to me, Dante inserted this scene in order to chastise his desire for recognition as a younger man. He’s reminding us that if honor is what we seek, then we belong in this scene with the young Dante, at an eternal awards ceremony, minding our manners, murmuring high-sounding sentiments, and congratulating ourselves -- but in hell.
“This is all my way of saying that I don’t plan to take [myself] too seriously. I’m going to keep running at noon, I’m going to keep teaching on my feet, and I’m going to keep standing up for the importance of the humanities in American education.”
Newsletter Editor:
Katie Marks
Managing Editor:
Stacia Zabusky
please e-mail address changes to Anita Costa.
In April, English professor Michael Twomey was named the new Dana Professor in the Humanities/Arts. The Dana professorship program began at Ithaca College in the mid-1970s, when the Charles A. Dana Foundation honored the College with an endowed fund to support several professors. One in the natural sciences, one in the social sciences, and one in the humanities/arts. This professorship is the highest honor the College bestows upon a professor, and the appointment is considered permanent throughout the professor’s tenure.
Twomey began teaching at Ithaca College in 1980. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1987 and to full professor in 1996. He has taught an impressive range of English literature courses on topics such as medieval literature, the English language, and the Bible. He has played a significant role in the English department, serving as chair and interim chair, and mentoring junior faculty. His colleagues note that he “has a habit of extending himself well above and beyond the call of duty,” and they appreciate both his leadership in the department and his gifts as a teacher. His students concur: they consider him “an incredibly knowledgeable man” who is “always willing to help.” Twomey is referred to, in short, as “an awesome professor.” He has also contributed generously to the wider College community. He initiated and contributed to Latin language instruction, played a pivotal role in the development of the master of arts in teaching degree, and served for many years as president of the national honor society Phi Kappa Phi.
Twomey is also a renowned scholar with an international reputation, and he has published widely on Arthurian literature, Latin and medieval English language, and medieval English authors and texts. He has received many prizes and awards for his scholarship, including the James Randall Leader Prize for the essay “The Voice of Aurality in the Morte Darthur” from the International Arthurian Society (North American branch) and a Fulbright senior lectureship, which took him to the University of Dresden in 1996-7. Professor Twomey’s career provides the very model of senior faculty contribution to department, school, College, and profession.
