Four Faculty Promoted to Full Professor

The promotions were approved at the most recent meeting of the College’s Board of Trustees.

Faculty

By Ryan E. Smith

Date November 5, 2024

Kenyon’s Board of Trustees considered the recommendations of the Tenure and Promotion Committee at its October meeting, where it approved promoting the following four members of the faculty to full professor effective July 1, 2025.

The title of full professor represents the highest rank the College confers. It rests upon demonstrated excellence in teaching, scholarly or artistic engagement, and citizenship sustained over a substantial period of time and the achievement of recognition both within the College and the profession as a whole.

Anton Dudley

Associate Professor of Drama

Anton Dudley joined Kenyon’s community in 2018. His creative scholarship exists in directing, performance and writing for the theater, including plays, musicals and opera libretti. Dudley’s work has premiered Off Broadway at New Victory Theater, Second Stage Theater, Cherry Lane Theatre, The Playwrights Realm and Theatre Row, as well as at theaters across the U.S., Germany and Canada. He was a finalist for the 2012 Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ+ Drama and co-recipient of the 1998 Helen Hayes Awards for both Outstanding Resident Musical and Direction. Dudley teaches courses in directing for the stage, writing lyrics for musical theater and dramatic literature.

Master of Fine Arts in dramatic writing from New York University (2001)
Bachelor of Arts in drama from Vassar College (1996)

Ross Feller

James D. & Cornelia W. Ireland Associate Professor of Music

Ross Feller joined Kenyon’s faculty in 2011. His compositions have been performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, and one of his recordings was nominated for a Grammy Award. A recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and a finalist for the Gaudeamus International Composers Award, he is the reviews editor for the Computer Music Journal and one of the world’s foremost scholars on the music of Brian Ferneyhough and the New Complexity. As a saxophonist, he has performed internationally with bands including Doctor Nerve, Cheer-Accident and Faust. He has also performed extensively with choreographer Kora Radella as Double Edge Dance.

Doctor of Musical Arts in composition and theory from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1994)
Master of Music in composition and theory from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1989)
Bachelor of Music in composition from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago (1986)

Sarah Heidt ’97

Associate Professor of English

Sarah Heidt joined Kenyon’s faculty in 2004 and specializes in 19th century British literature and culture, auto/biography and life writing, and women’s writing. She is completing a memoir in essays titled “Reading Life: A Love Story” and has focused her recent research on holistic and contemplative approaches to college-level teaching and learning. She won the junior Trustee Teaching Excellence Award in 2010 and the Faculty Advising Award in 2017, and the senior class chose her to deliver the Baccalaureate address in 2010 and 2018. Heidt has chaired the English department and co-chaired Campus Senate, and she is a former resident director of the Kenyon-Exeter program, which she will co-direct in the spring.

Doctor of Philosophy in English from Cornell University (2003)
Master of Arts in English from Cornell University (2000)
Bachelor of Arts in English and classics from Kenyon College (1997)

Stephen Volz

Associate Professor of History

Stephen Volz joined the Kenyon faculty in 2004. His field of expertise is African history, with particular interest in Africa’s global interactions, the role of religion in African societies, and the region of Southern Africa. Prior to coming to Kenyon, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana and a high school social studies teacher in New York City. Volz’s research focuses on African cultural changes during the early colonial era, with numerous publications on the impact of Christianity, schools and literacy in Tswana communities. Volz also served as director of the international studies program at Kenyon from 2012-2016 and chair of the history department from 2021-24.