Amy Whitworth, program coordinator for philosophy, began her appointment as chair of language, philosophy and culture Aug. 18. She said she’s very excited to be the chair and to support all the good work that is going on in the department. Photo by Daniel Carde
Whitworth accepts the position after a personal request from previous chair.
M.J. Callahan
The new chair of language, philosophy and culture is Dr. Amy Whitworth, who was the program coordinator for philosophy.
The previous chair, Tammy Perez, foreign language professor, served in the position three years and decided to take a break from chair duties to return to teaching while pursuing a doctorate degree in higher education leadership from Walden University.
Chairs serve three-year terms.
“She is going to be an amazing chair,” said Perez, who asked Whitworth to consider taking the reins. She added that Whitworth is organized and “on top of things.”
Whitworth received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1987 and started with this college as an adjunct in 1996. She became a full-time faculty member on a tenure track in 1999.
Whitworth said she tries to be a role model. While teaching and pregnant with her fourth child, she decided to go back to school and earned her master’s and doctorate in 2010 from Marquette University, focusing on medieval and ancient philosophy.
Last semester, the philosophy department offered a brown bag lunch series of lectures. This year Whitworth would like to present a lecture on a summer study she attended in Greece about how the ancient Greeks faced mortality.
Whitworth hopes to incorporate the humanities program into the lecture series this semester. The program recently joined the department of language, philosophy and culture from the history and sociology department.
Whitworth said her department is full of popular programs, and the hard part is not only making sure the good work endures but also to continue building them up. Whitworth wants to offer academic events like the lecture series outside the classroom, so all students can understand the different programs in her department.
Whitworth hopes to expand programs like the brown bag lecture series, form reading groups, broaden the world languages department and welcome students from across the campus to participate.
Whitworth’s department is home to the philosophy, world language, humanities and English as a second language programs.
Philosophy has four full-time tenure track professors, four full-time adjuncts and three part-time adjuncts.
The world language program has five-full-time tenure-track professors, one full-time instructor and nine part-time adjuncts.
The Humanities program has one full-time adjunct and four part-time adjuncts.
ESL has seven full-time tenure track professors and 12 part-time adjuncts.
“The overall goal,” she said, “is to ensure students a high-quality and transferable education.”
