Townsend Ludington, Chair

Towny Ludington is the Boshamer Distinguished Professor of American Studies and English, Emeritus, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he taught from 1966-2004 as well as directed the American Studies program 1968-1971 and again in 1986-2001. He was involved with the creation of the African-American Studies Program in the late 1960s and was instrumental in the creation of a Native American Studies program, now housed in American Studies. He is the author or editor of eleven books about American literature, art, and culture. Among them are major biographies of the writer John Dos Passos--which won a North Carolina Mayflower Award--and the artist Marsden Hartley. He received a Fulbright Lectureship to teach in France, has also taught in Spain, Germany, and other foreign countries; has directed two National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institutes; and has served as Resident Scholar in American Studies for the U.S. International Communications Agency.