For many years, revenue from this endowment was combined with that of the Boldt Chair in the Humanities to meet the threshold for an endowed chair. Over time, the funds in both endowments have grown to the point that the Boldt endowment is sufficient to support the Boldt chair, and the NEH endowment is similarly sufficient to support a separate chair. The Board of Regents awarded the chair for the first time in 2023 to Maggie Broner, Professor of Romance Languages.
Current Chair: Colin Wells, Professor of English
Colin Wells joined the St. Olaf English Department in 1995. Born in Liverpool, England, and raised in Massachusetts, he received his B.A. from Boston College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Rutgers University. His areas of academic interest include the literature of the American Revolutionary and Early National periods, 18th-century English poetry, and the intersection of literature, politics and religion. He is the author of two books: The Devil and Doctor Dwight: Satire and Theology in the Early American Republic (UNC 2002) and Poetry Wars: Verse and Politics in the American Revolution and Early Republic (Penn 2017). At St. Olaf, Colin has taught courses in 18th- and 19th-century British and early American literature, comedy, satire, the novel, and literary theory. He has taught in both American Conversations and the Great Conversation programs.