St. Olaf announces faculty promotions
St. Olaf Provost and Dean of the College Marci Sortor has announced the promotion of three faculty members to the position of full professor: Irve Dell in the Art and Art History Department, Steven Hahn in the History Department, and Kent McWilliams in the Music Department.
Dell joined the faculty in 1989. He holds an M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Minnesota. His work combining sculpture and theater is recognized internationally. A co-founder of the “Gymnasium,” a consortium of creative risk-takers both in and outside of the arts, he has led the New York Art Interim program and teaches (among other courses) Creating Spectacle.
Hahn joined the faculty in 2000, having earned his Ph.D. from Emory University the same year. His scholarly and teaching interests are centered on the fields of colonial American, Native American, and Atlantic world history, and he has written two books on these topics. He teaches courses on the American Revolution, Ben Franklin’s America, the Trail of Tears, the West before Lewis and Clark, and Pirates of the Caribbean. He also has taught in the American Conversations program.
McWilliams joined the faculty in 2001 and currently serves as vice chair of the Music Department. He holds a D.M.A. from the Université de Montréal and an Artist Diploma from the Stuttgart Music Academy in Germany, having also studied in Poland to research his doctoral thesis. He has performed in more than a dozen countries and recently released a CD titled East meets West: Music for Clarinet and Piano by Chinese Composers together with clarinetist Jun Qian.