FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Contact: Dave Wellman, Director of Communications, (304) 696-7153
 

Language professor is newest Drinko Academy Fellow

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – A professor of Spanish at Marshall University has been named the Drinko Academy Fellow for 2008.

Maria del Carmen Riddel, Ph.D., has worked in the Department of Modern Languages since 1983 teaching everything from introductory language classes to Spanish culture, literature, history and honors courses. She has served as chairwoman of the department since 2002.

“Being named a Drinko Fellow is a welcome recognition of my professional skills and of my intellectual capabilities and is quite an honor,” Riddel said. “I am also humbled because I am surrounded by many colleagues who deserve this acknowledgement as much as I do.”

Faculty members from various departments at Marshall are appointed annually as Drinko Fellows. They receive a stipend and carry reduced teaching loads for an academic year and summer to undertake original research or curriculum development. The announcement was made during the Drinko Symposium earlier today.

During her fellowship, Riddel plans to write a book about Cuban-Americans from materials compiled over the past five years while working with now-retired Marshall history professor David Duke.  Their book will investigate and consider the cultural effect that Cuba and the United States have had on each other since Fidel Castro’s rise to power in 1959.

“Having the time to research and to determine the effects of the encounter of two cultures will provide me with new perspectives which always result in healthy skepticism,” she said. “I believe new perspectives to be a fundamental feature of critical thinking and immediately transferable to the courses I teach and, even if indirectly, a definite benefit to my students.”

Riddel, a native of Spain, earned her doctorate from The Ohio State University in 1988, her Master’s degree from Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain, in 1977, and her bachelor’s degree from Marshall University in 1975.

She follows this year’s Drinko Fellow, Wendell Dobbs, D.M.A., a professor in Marshall’s music department. He and his wife Linda, also a music professor, formed the John Marshall Fife and Drum Corps in 2007.

The Academy is named for the late Dr. John Deaver Drinko, a 1942 Marshall graduate and former senior managing partner of Baker & Hostetler, one of the nation’s largest law firms. He and his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Gibson Drinko, have been long-time supporters of academic programs at Marshall.

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