Allen named distinguished professor
The St. Olaf College Board of Regents recently appointed Professor of French Wendy Allen as the Oscar and Gertrude Boe Overby Distinguished Professor.
The Board of Regents established the Overby chair in 2006 to recognize long-term St. Olaf faculty for their excellent teaching, meaningful scholarship or creative activity, and care for the college over time.
Allen joined St. Olaf in 1977 after earning her B.A. from Connecticut College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University. A 17th-century France specialist, she has done extensive work in second language acquisition and pedagogy, and is a recognized expert on the place of culture in the language curriculum.
Allen has taught French courses at all levels of the curriculum, and led the Term in the Middle East and the Global Semester study-abroad programs. In February she will resume her second term as chair of the Department of Romance Languages. She was one of the founders of the college’s Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum program.
The Overby chair was previously held by St. Olaf Professor of Art and Art History Wendell Arneson. Allen is the third holder of this professorship.