The Amos Distinguished Chair in English Sponsorship Award

In celebration of the 30th year anniversary of the Georgia State University’s John B. and Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Distinguished Chair in English, Dr. Elizabeth West is proud to sponsor registration funds for two scholarly panels for five years, beginning with last year's SAMLA 94. The Amos Chair was envisioned as an endowment to provide income support for “leadership in teaching, academic research, and service in the discipline of English.” The initial stipulation for the first holder of the Amos Chair was that this inaugural awardee would be a distinguished biographer in the field of Southern American literature. Virginia Spencer Carr, a distinguished scholar and biographer of Southern Literature, would be named GSU’s first Amos Distinguished Chair. Subsequent recipients of the award would not be required to meet the biographer criteria but must have a record of “significant work in the humanities and demonstrate the potential for a continued record of scholarly achievement.” The award donor, Elena Diaz-Verson, was herself a Cuban American who gave generously to support scholarship in global studies. It is therefore in keeping with the spirit of the Amos Endowment that the two sponsored panels must have a focus on biography, archives, and or digital humanities, and represent a global scope.

Eligibility Requirements and Award Process

When submitting Session Information forms, chairs can mark their sessions for consideration for this Award based upon the above criteria. These self-declared sessions will be reviewed internally by SAMLA. The members of the two panels selected will have their conference registration costs covered. Panelists must attend and present at the conference to receive their complementary registration.

SAMLA 94 Winners

01-15 Spanish-American Literature of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries A 
Chair: Alvaro Torres-Calderón, University of North Georgia
Secretary: Rudyard Alcocer, University of Tennessee 
 Rudyard Alcocer, University of Tennessee 
 Jaime Salinas Zabalaga, University of North Georgia
 María José Maguire, University of North Georgia 
 Rafael Ocasio, Agnes Scott College

03-12 Humanizing History in the Digital Age
Women in French
Chair: Lisa Connell, University of West Georgia 
 Alicia Doyen-Rodríguez, Emory University 
 Delphine Gras, Florida Gulf Coast University 
 Lisa Connell, University of West Georgia