Walsh University recently announced that Ty Hawkins, Ph.D., has been named Incoming Director of the Honors Program.
The Honors Program at Walsh University is housed in the School of Arts and Sciences. This distinguished program provides an interdisciplinary learning environment designed to stimulate the intellectual curiosity of academically gifted undergraduate students with a broad range of interests. The Honors curriculum offers a special sequence of challenging courses in the areas of interdisciplinary research and writing, world civilization, and world literature, followed by interdisciplinary Honors seminars, the Junior Honors Project, and culminating with the Senior Honors Thesis.
"During his time at Walsh, Dr. Hawkins has proven himself as a capable leader with a programmatic vision founded on rigor, interdisciplinary, and inclusion," said School of Arts and Sciences Dean Dr. Ute Lahaie. "He has demonstrated his leadership skills in his work as Coordinator of the Freshman Composition Program and in his role as Faculty Sponsor of the English Honors Society Sigma Tau Delta. He embraces 21st century active-learning methods, and his commitment to excellence was recognized with Walsh's Outstanding Faculty Scholar Award in 2013."
As Incoming Director, Dr. Hawkins is working closely with current Honors Director Dr. Koop Berry to learn the management of the program and to develop a vision for the program’s future. He is also meeting with the program stakeholders to discuss existing strengths and opportunities for growth.
"I’m honored - pun intended - to be chosen as the next Director of the Honors Program. Our Honors Program is replete with exceptional students and enjoys the support of outstanding teacher-scholars from the faculty," said Dr. Hawkins. "The program also enjoys the strong support of Walsh’s administration. Hence, I view this as an opportune time for me to work with fellow faculty and administrators to maximize the program’s strengths, while identifying opportunities for expansion and diversification."
In addition, Dr. Hawkins has developed and will be teaching two course sections of HONORS 205 this spring called "Modern War and Western Culture." Students will undertake an interdisciplinary study of the link between warfare, modernity, and the human experience in the West. The course will be reading- and writing-intensive.
"The Walsh Honors Program has had only three directors in its nearly 20-year history: Drs. David Baxter, John Kandl, and Koop Berry. All three faculty members - the first emeritus, the latter two still currently active at Walsh - have long ties to the institution," said Dr. Hawkins. "Each also enjoys a sterling record and reputation as an outstanding teacher-scholar. I have a great deal to which I must live up, and I welcome the challenge."
Dr. Hawkins joined the Walsh faculty in 2011 as Assistant Professor of English. From 2012-2014, he also served as Coordinator of the Freshman Composition Program. Before joining Walsh’s faculty, Dr. Hawkins taught at Saint Louis University, as well as the University of Illinois at Springfield. At Walsh, he teaches at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum, and his courses span myriad American literatures, as well as various forms of composition.
As a scholar, Dr. Hawkins has established specialties in American literature, American rhetoric, and writing pedagogy. He is the author of Reading Vietnam amid the War on Terror (Palgrave Macmillan 2012), a monograph on war literature and war rhetoric that focuses on U.S. texts of the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars. Dr. Hawkins also has published on American writers who range from contemporaries such as Cormac McCarthy, Jonathan Franzen, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Kevin Powers, to highly canonical authors like Ernest Hemingway and Stephen Crane. Dr. Hawkins is the Faculty Sponsor of Sigma Tau Delta and Founder of the Walsh University Veterans Reading Group.