APPLETON, WIS. — Deep appreciation for film and opera has led a pair of Lawrence University alumni and an anonymous donor to establish two new endowed professorships at the college. Lawrence requires a minimum of $2.5 million to establish an endowed professorship.
Tom Hurvis, and his wife, Julie, 1960 and 1961 Lawrence graduates, respectively, have established the Jill Beck Professorship in Film Studies. The endowed professorship recognizes Lawrence’s 15th president, the Hurvis’ love of film and their conviction that student participation in film studies has an important role in a liberal arts education. Beck served as Lawrence president from 2004-2013.
In 2011, Lawrence established the Hurvis Center for Interdisciplinary Film Studies, a facility dedicated to film production, with a $5 million gift from the Hurvises.
An anonymous donor has made a gift to encourage participation in music and arts and enhance Lawrence’s capacity to provide learning and performance opportunities by establishing an endowed director of opera studies position. Lawrence has staged an opera production annually since 1961, including Kurt Weill’s “Street Scene” in March.
In conjunction with the gifts, Lawrence President Mark Burstein announced the appointment of Amy Abugo Ongiri as the Jill Beck Professor and Director of Film Studies and J. Copeland Woodruff as Director of Opera Studies.
Orgiri is currently an associate professor of English at the University of Florida, while Woodruff is an assistant professor and co-director of opera studies at the University of Memphis.
Both Ongri and Woodruff join the Lawrence faculty with the rank of associate professor. Ongiri’s appointment includes tenure.
“One of the many strengths that a Lawrence education develops is the ability to link a student’s own talent and creativity with performance and presentation, a skill one needs to succeed in the world today,” said Burstein in announcing the appointments. “The addition of Amy Abugo Ongiri and J. Copeland Woodruff significantly enhances our capability in this area both for students interested in film studies and in the conservatory and also in the larger Lawrence student body.”
Ongiri joined the University of Florida faculty in 2003 and was recognized with UF’s 2006 Teacher of the Year Award.
Her scholarship focuses on African American literature and culture, film studies, cultural studies, and gender and sexuality studies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Bryn Mawr College, a master’s degree from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Woodruff has taught at the University of Memphis since 2008. He has held teaching appointments at The Julliard School, Oberlin College, Temple and Yale universities as well as the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and Germany’s Universität Bamberg. He also has served as a guest instructor with La Musica Lirica in Italy, the Festival of International Opera of the Americas in Brazil and at Bejing University.
He has directed more than 90 opera productions, including the 2013 world premiere of “Raise the Red Lantern” at the Tianqiao Theatre in Bejing. Since 2006, Woodruff has earned four first-place National Opera Association Best Opera Production Awards.
Woodruff earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in vocal performance at the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree in stage directing for opera from Indiana University.
About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries
