Veteran Ļć½¶Ö±²„faculty member, author takes helm of CMLL department
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.āMississippi State Professor Robert M. West adds interim department head for the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures to his leadership positions on campus.
A faculty member in the English department since 2002, West was instrumental in MSUās 2019 installation of a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honors organization in the United States. He is currently the president of MSUās PBK chapter, and also chairs the membership committee that selects students for induction.
āDr. West is a long-time member of the faculty in the English department and as such he has shared background regarding the teaching and research challenges in the humanities,ā said Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Rick Travis. āAdd on his experience as the associate editor of Mississippi Quarterly, which is housed in our college, and he has seen many aspects of administration. He will be a wise decision maker and effective advocate for the department.ā
A native of North Carolina, West is editor ofĀ āThe Complete Poems of A. R. Ammons,ā a 2017 W.W. Norton & Co. publication. He served as interim director of theĀ Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Travis said Westās leadership efforts to bring PBK to Ļć½¶Ö±²„helped West become āacquainted with the great breadth of our collegeā and āvery well-versedā in the administrative structure of the university.
āIāve admired this department for over 20 years, and I feel honored to have the opportunity to serve its faculty and students in this way. The study of languages and literatures from around the globe has long been central to the work of a world-class university, and Iāll be a vigorous advocate for it during my time as interim department head,ā West said.
Westās essays, book reviews and poems have appeared inĀ publications including Alabama Literary Review,Ā American Life in Poetry, Appalachian Journal, The Best Nonrequired Reading, Christian Science Monitor, Poetry, South Atlantic Review,Ā Southern Poetry ReviewĀ and Southern Quarterly.Ā
His other publications include the poetry chapbook āConvalescentāĀ (2011)Ā and an anthology he co-edited with poet Jonathan Greene, āSuccinct: The Broadstone Anthology of Short Poemsā (2013).Ā
Westās forthcoming book āRobert Morgan: Essays on the Life and Workā is due out this year from McFarland. West co-edited the collection of essays on the poet and novelist with Jesse Graves, an East Tennessee State University professor of English.
West earned his Ph.D. and masterās degrees, both in English, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Ā He has a bachelorās degree in English from Wake Forest University.Ā
Ļć½¶Ö±²„is Mississippiās leading university, available online at .