Dr. Luke Eric Lassiter (pictured), a professor of humanities and anthropology and director of the graduate humanities program at Marshall University, has been named the 28th Distinguished John Deaver Drinko Academy Fellow.
The award is one of the university’s highest recognitions for faculty and includes a stipend, re-assigned time from teaching, and other financial and clerical support for two academic years to undertake research, special projects, or other scholarly pursuits.
The announcement of Lassiter’s appointment was made by the academy’s executive director, Dr. Montserrat Miller, during the academy’s annual dinner Saturday evening.
“It is truly an honor to welcome Dr. Luke Eric Lassiter to the ranks of Marshall University’s Distinguished Drinko Fellows,” Miller said. “In addition to being an exceptional faculty member, with incredible mastery of experiential learning and community engagement, Dr. Lassiter is a prolific scholar with a national and international consulting profile.”
Lassiter has been with Marshall University since 2005. He received his doctorate in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and taught at Ball State University in Indiana prior to joining Marshall.
Among his many awards and recognitions, Lassiter is a 2019 Weatherford Award winner, along with colleagues Dr. Elizabeth Campbell and Dr. Brian Hoey, for “I’m Afraid of that Water: A Collaborative Ethnography on a West Virginia Water Crisis.” He is a busy researcher, collaborator and lecturer.
Lassiter was recently named president of the Historic Glenwood Foundation and has served since 2014 as co-director of the Glenwood Center for Scholarship in the Humanities.
Saturday’s dinner also featured a presentation by Sandra Reed, the 26th Drinko Fellow and a professor of art. Reed’s award-winning paintings are held in numerous collections in the LaGrange Museum of Art, the Telfair Academy and the United States Navy Memorial.
Please visit here for more information on Reed and her work with the Drinko Academy,