We’re really happy that Sara Lennox, director of the Social Thought and Political Economy Program (STPEC) and professor of German and Scandinavian studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree at May's commencement. A 1965 graduate of DePauw, Dr. Lennox is a pioneer in broadening German Studies to include questions of race and gender and models how liberal arts education provides a foundation for professional distinction and interdisciplinary analysis.
Enrolling at DePauw, Sara (King) Lennox intended to major in chemistry, but German became her first love after she participated in DePauw's study abroad program. Receiving an M.A. in German, she switched to Comparative Literature for her Ph.D. Attracted by opportunities of promoting innovative interdisciplinary education for undergraduates she became director of STPEC. Twenty-five years later, STPEC is a hallmark program in providing rigorous intellectual experiences that prize critical interdisciplinary thinking, multiculturalism, and connecting theory and practice.
Dr. Lennox has received grants from the Humboldt Foundation to study black Germans, and funds from the Volkswagen Foundation on black Europeans. Her scholarship focuses on German-language women’s writing, including
CEMETERY OF THE MURDERED DAUGHTERS: FEMINISM, HISTORY AND INGEBORG BACHMANN (2006);
a co-edited collection, FEMINIST MOVEMENTS IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD (2002);
and co-author of THE IMPERIALIST IMAGINATION: GERMAN COLONIALISM AND ITS LEGACY (1998).
She is currently completing work on an edited volume, REMAPPING BLACK GERMANY: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON AFRO-GERMAN HISTORY, POLITICS, AND CULTURE She is a past president of the German Studies Association.