Chadbourne to get new faculty director
Mary Layoun, professor of comparative literature, has been named faculty director of Chadbourne Residential College, a university undergraduate learning community.
 Layoun
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Layoun will take the post at the end of this semester, succeeding William Cronon, Frederick Jackson Turner professor of History, Geography and Environmental Studies. Cronon developed the Chadbourne concept of connecting the academic and personal lives of students and has been faculty director during the program’s first three years.
“Mary is undoubtedly one of UW–Madison’s most charismatic and committed teachers,” Cronon says. “I honestly don’t think there’s a better person on campus to serve CRC in this capacity, and we are very lucky that she is willing to take on this challenging, but exhilarating, assignment.”
The idea behind Chadbourne is that living is learning, and the residence hall can be a form of classroom. Rather than just a place to unwind, Chadbourne is a center of intellectual pursuits. The faculty director is responsible for all facets of the program, which enrolls about 700 undergraduates on a campus of 40,600 students.
Layoun is known on campus as an innovative teacher who is deeply committed to students. She has won the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award; helped found UW–Madison’s Teaching Academy; and served as a founding faculty fellow at UW–Madison’s Bradley Learning Community, another undergraduate program that shares Chadbourne’s objectives.
In her scholarly work, Layoun specializes in the study of modern literature as it relates to nationalism, gender, fascism and other cultural contexts.
Cronon is a leader in the field of environmental history. Most recently, he has been at work on a history of Portage, Wis. He has been awarded a sabbatical for the coming academic year.