TABLE OF CONTENTS  |  FRONT PAGE  |  NEXT ARTICLE |  PREVIOUS ARTICLE  |  UNC HOMEPAGE

Gura named Newman professor

Philip F. Gura was named William S. Newman distinguished professor of literature and culture effective July 1 on a nine-month basis.

A member of the English department faculty, Gura also holds the post of adjunct professor of religious studies.

He teaches undergraduate classes in early American literature, American studies and the history of American religion.

Gura's primary research is in American literature and culture before 1860, in the history of print culture and in the history of American music.

He has written most frequently on American Puritanism, American transcendentalism and, more generally, on the relationship between American writers and their culture.

Gura has written or edited six books, most recently America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century. His most influential works include A Glimpse of Sion's Glory: Puritan Radicalism in New England and The Wisdom of Words: Language, Theology, and Literature in the New England Renaissance.

Gura is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.

He has served on the National Council of the Institute of Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg. He has held an NEH Senior Fellowship, two Peterson Fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society and another from the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University.

Gura has been awarded the Foerster Prize in American Literature from the Modern Language Association and the Frances Densmore Prize from the American Musical Instrument Society.

One of Gura's two main avocations is old-time Appalachian music, both as a banjo player and a chronicler of the reemergence of Southern rural music during the folk revival of the 1960s.

A member of the Daguerreian Society, Gura also collects 19th-century photography. Most recently, he has gained national attention for discovering what is probably the second-known photograph of Emily Dickinson.

Gura earned his doctorate in the history of American civilization at Harvard University.

The William S. Newman distinguished professorship is one of the Margaret and Paul A. Johnston professorships. It is named for a former alumni distinguished professor of music who served on the Carolina faculty from 1945 to 1977.

In 1987, the Johnstons created the professorships bearing their name to honor retired faculty.

TABLE OF CONTENTS  |  FRONT PAGE  |  NEXT ARTICLE |  PREVIOUS ARTICLE  |  UNC HOMEPAGE