Prof steps in as new chairman of English Dept.

The English Department has entered a new era with changes to the College Writing Program and the hiring of additional faculty -- and with those changes comes a new leader.

English Professor David Wallace has stepped in as the chairman of the department following the departure of English Professor John Richetti, who is taking a leave of absence from the University to pursue outside projects. Wallace will serve a three-year term.

Richetti was chairman for a full five-year term, then agreed to fill in as interim chairman for two years, a record seven-year tenure in the position.

Wallace noted that he has some large shoes to fill as Richetti's successor.

"It is a great honor," Williams said. "I loved John Richetti. He is a very inspirational, flamboyant leader."

And Richetti offered nothing but praise for his younger successor.

"He is our bright future as well as our brilliant present," Richetti said. "He is perhaps the single most distinguished medievalist now working in the English-speaking world. He's already doing wonderful things as we seek to recruit new faculty members. I sleep soundly knowing that David is in charge of the department."

And only a week into the semester, Wallace has already planned out a list of goals for the English Department.

"I want to emphasize the importance of undergraduate education, do some spectacular things with hiring, emphasize the importance of the Kings College program in London, and I have a personal interest in developing Irish studies," Williams said.

But Williams noted that despite the deteriorating condition of the department's home, Bennett Hall, the department is constantly improving.

"People assume that because the building is falling apart so is the department," Williams said. "We are doing really well and in great shape, but we are undersized for the number of majors we have, so we could use some additional faculty."

Williams added that renovations will be made to the facility, but not in the immediate future.

But for Richetti, the time is right to move on.

"Although I enjoy the work and am honored to chair so distinguished a department, it was time for me to have more time for my main professional activities," Richetti said.

Last spring, Richetti announced that he would take academic leave to complete a biography of Daniel Defoe for Blackwell Publishers and to edit the "Restoration and Eighteenth-Century" volume of the New Cambridge History of English Literature for Cambridge University Press.

"Seven years is a modern record for the department [chairmanship] and I think at this point I am too old to do it again," Richetti said. "I am, in fact, the oldest member of the department, although I don't most of the time feel elderly. It is time for others with youth and energy and new ideas to take the department into a bright future."

In addition to the significant role he has played in the restructuring of the department, Richetti is also one of the founders of the current college house system and a former Harrison College House faculty master.

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