Two Women Scholars Appointed Harvard College Professors

Harvard University has announced the appointment of five faculty members as Harvard College Professors. The professorships were established in 1997. They provide faculty members with extra support for research or other scholarly activities, a semester of paid leave, or additional summer salary. The appointments are for five years. Two of the five faculty members named a Harvard College Professor are women.

Amanda Claybaugh was named the Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of English. Professor Claybaugh specializes in the literature of the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. Dr. Claybaugh joined the faculty at Harvard in 2010. Earlier, she taught at Columbia University in New York City for nine years. Dr. Claybaugh is a graduate of Yale University and holds a Ph.D. in English from Harvard University. She is the author of The Novel of Purpose: Literature and Social Reform in the Anglo-American World (Cornell University Press, 2007).

Melissa Franklin was appointed  the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics. This past academic year, she taught courses on electromagnetism, a first-year seminar of quantum mechanics, and a course on digital media in the Graduate School of Design. Professor Franklin joined the Harvard University faculty in 1989 and was promoted to full professor in 1992. She chaired the university’s physics department from 2010 to 2014. Dr. Franklin is a graduate of the University of Toronto. She earned a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University.