Knox Names Two Faculty to Endowed Chairs

Knox College has named two faculty to endowed chairs: Steve Cohn to the Charles W. and Arvilla S. Timme Chair in Economics, and Jessie Dixon to the Burkhardt Distinguished Chair in Modern Languages.

Steve Cohn has been appointed the Charles W. and Arvilla S. Timme Chair in Economics. Professor Cohn earned his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from Princeton University, and B.A. from Amherst College. His scholarship includes Reintroducing Macroeconomics: A Critical Approach (2006) and >Too Cheap to Meter: An Economic and Philosophic Analysis of the Nuclear Dream (1997); his current work is on the evolution of Chinese economic theory from 1949 to the present. He has published and presented professional work, domestically and internationally, on critiques of neoclassical economic thought, environmental economics, and the contemporary Chinese economy and Chinese political-economic theory. Cohn has taught at Knox since 1984, and recently returned from teaching at the Chinese Studies Institute at Peking University. He also has chaired the Department of Economics and served as consultant and director of the Micro and Macro Critique Workshops for the Global Development and Environment Institute. The Timme Chair has had a very distinguished history at Knox: the previous holder was Roy Andersen, who retired last June, and, prior to that, Wilbur Pillsbury.

The Timme Chair is named in honor of Charles and Arvilla Timme. Charles W. Timme was a retired financial officer and analyst with the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Agency for International Development, whose only connection to the College was his cousin, Judge Robert Castendyck, a member of the Class of 1944 and honorary trustee. Mr. Timme and his wife, Arvilla bequeathed their estate to Knox College in 1993, resulting in the largest individual gift in Knox’s history at that time. Their gift created two endowed funds – the faculty chair in economics named in their honor and a fund to support student projects and research in economics facilitated through the Vovis Center for Research & Advanced Study. 

Jessie D. Dixon has been named to the Burkhardt Distinguished Chair in Modern Languages. Professor Dixon received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of Chicago, and her B.A. from Knox College. Her scholarship includes publications and presentations on Cuban underground hip-hop, Caribbean literature, Afro-Hispanic literature, and the teaching of elementary and intermediate Spanish. Dixon has taught at Knox since 1994, and in 2004, she was awarded the Philip Green Wright Lombard College Distinguished Teaching Award for Tenured Faculty. Dixon currently serves as chair of the Department of Modern Languages and has served as director of the Knox programs in Barcelona, Besancon, and Buenos Aires, as well as short-term programs in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Ghana and Benin. Dixon is also co-chair of Knox’s summer program, College for Kids.

The Burkhardt Distinguished Chair in Modern Languages was established in 2009 through the generosity of Dr. Richard W. Burkhardt '39 and Dorothy Johnson Burkhardt '39. The Burkhardts both had long and distinguished careers in the academy. Dr. Burkhardt, who died last March, served on the faculties of Syracuse and Ball State Universities; he served as vice president and dean of the faculty at Ball State, a position he held for almost 20 years, until he retired in 1985. During the 1978-1979 academic year, Dr. Burkhardt also served as acting president of the university. Mrs. Burkhardt, who passed away last January, served as instructor of French, Spanish and Russian, also at Ball State, from 1958 to 1983, and was awarded the Palmes Academiques by the French government for her efforts to promote cross-cultural learning between France and the United States. She was a member of the Board of Trustees at Knox from 1976 to 1990, when she was elected a life trustee. In 2010, the Burkhardts provided funding to enhance the language teaching lab in George Davis Hall which today carries their name.