Skip Navigation
Return to All Schools

Richard A. Macksey Professorship for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities

Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

Established in 1999 by Edward T. Dangel III and his wife, Bonni Widdoes, in honor of Richard A. Macksey

MackseyRichardRICHARD A. MACKSEY, A&S 1953, 1957 (PhD), is an award-winning teacher who has been a Hopkins faculty member since 1958. Co-founder of Hopkins’ Humanities Center, he holds a joint appointment in the Humanities Center and in the Writing Seminars. Dr. Macksey, who reads and writes in six languages, is best known for the breadth of his scholarship and teaching, and he has introduced to the curriculum many new courses. Dr. Macksey has published poetry, fiction, translations, and a wide spectrum of academic works, and he is a recipient of the Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Held by Alice McDermott

McDermottAliceALICE McDERMOTT, the Richard A. Macksey Professor for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities who holds an appointment in the Writing Seminars, was the winner of the 1998 National Book Award for her novel Charming Billy. Ms. McDermott, who joined the Hopkins faculty in 1996, is the author of a total of six novels, the latest of which, After This, was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. Her fifth novel, Child of My Heart, was a Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection, one of Book Magazine’s Ten Best Novels of 2002 and a nominee for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award. Her third novel, At Weddings and Wakes, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her articles, reviews and stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Redbook, Ms. Magazine, Commonweal and elsewhere.