Cornell University Department of professor Amy Villarejo has been appointed the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of Humanities, effective July 1, 2018. The Board of Trustees approved the named professorship at their May meeting.
The Frederic J. Whiton Professorship was established in 1960. It is supported by the Frederic J. Whiton Memorial Fund, which Mr. Whiton AB ’80 set up in 1948 for the promotion of liberal studies. Mr. Whiton was the director of the Tompkins County Trust Company for 63 years and attended Columbia Law School.
Villarejo came to Cornell in 1997 and was formerly director of the Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. She chaired the Department of from 2008–2015, leading the department through two major restructurings and reorganizations, including an effort in 2012 that resulted in a new major and a name change.
In November 2017, Villarejo was named the first faculty director for the Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity. In May 2018, she was selected as the first recipient of the Morgan Chia-Wen Sze and Bobbi Josephine Hernandez Distinguished Teaching Prize.
