Afsah-Mohallatee, Appleton Named Foundation Professors for 2015-17
David Afsah-Mohallatee (left) and Dr. Tom Appleton are the latest faculty members to earn Eastern Kentucky University’s highest honor for teaching excellence.
Appleton, a professor in the Department of History, and Afsah-Mohallatee, a professor in the Department of Art & Design, have received the 2015-17 EKU Foundation Professorship. The annual honor recognizes those who demonstrate outstanding abilities in the three primary roles of a faculty member: teaching, service and research. The professorship provides a salary supplement for two years.
Appleton, who joined the EKU faculty in 2000, is one of Kentucky’s foremost historians. From 1979 to 2000, Dr. Appleton served with the Kentucky Historical Society, first as assistant editor, then managing editor and, finally, editor in chief of the publications department. He is the co-editor of six books, including the recently published “Kentucky Women: Their Lives and Times.” Other titles include “Negotiating Boundaries of Southern Womanhood: Dealing with the Powers That Be” and “Searching for Their Places: Women in the South across Four Centuries.” Appleton is currently working on a biography of legendary Kentuckian Albert B. “Happy” Chandler.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Memphis, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Kentucky.
Afsah-Mohallatee teaches printmaking and drawing courses in EKU’s Department of Art & Design. His prints are held in collections nationwide, and he has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Higher Education Art Educator of the Year on two occasions and the Al Smith Artist Fellowship Award. In 1996, the Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico, recognized him as a Tamarind Master Printer. His creative works have been published in leading periodicals, and he has conducted visiting artist lectures in Japan and Ecuador as well as at a number of colleges, universities and arts organizations throughout the U.S.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Kutztown University and his master’s degree from Temple University.
All full-time tenured faculty members are eligible for the award. The selection is made by a committee composed of faculty, and the process provides for a high degree of peer review.
Fifty-eight professors have been honored for teaching excellence by the EKU Foundation since the awards were first given in 1988.
Also this year, Dr. Deborah Whitehouse, dean of EKU’s College of Health Sciences, was named an Honorary Foundation Professor.
Published on September 18, 2015