C&IS professor Dr. Robin Boylorn has been named the inaugural Holle Endowed Chair in Communication Arts.
In this role, Boylorn will lead the development of a new scholarly center for the College, recruit the affiliation of distinguished national and international scholars, secure external funding and cultivate interdisciplinary communication performance and activities for The Holle Center for Communication Arts.
Both the Center and the endowed position, which were established through a $10 million gift to the College from Brigadier General Everett Hughes Holle, will focus on supporting creative activity and scholarship that advances human dignity, breaks down barriers to understanding, illuminates injustices, and encourages collaboration and empathy.
“Dr. Boylorn has an established record of achievement which includes a strong ability and desire to work effectively with students, faculty, staff, administrators, professionals and other college stakeholders,” said Dr. Mark Nelson, dean of C&IS. “I am confident her expertise, her commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship, and her collaborative approach to the communication arts will serve our College and the discipline very well.”
Boylorn currently serves as a professor in the Department of Communication Studies. Her areas of research include communication and culture, diversity and identity studies, representation, autoethnography and narrative inquiry, interpersonal communication and intercultural communication. In addition, she is also the current editor of the Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies journal, a peer-reviewed publication that publishes scholarship for an international readership on communication as a theory, practice, technology and discipline of power.
“Being selected as the inaugural Holle Chair in Communication Arts and the founding director of the Holle Center for Communication Arts is the greatest honor of my career,” Boylorn said. “I look forward to visioning possibilities for facilitating social justice through communication, storytelling and creativity.”
To learn more about the future Holle Center for Communication Arts, click here.
