McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair
Dr. Joey Quiñones Will Be the 2024-25 McAndless Professor
Eastern Michigan University College of Arts and Science is proud to announce that Dr. Joey Quiñones will be the 2024-25 McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair in the Humanities.
Dr. Joey Quiñones, a nationally recognized artist and scholar, and the Head of Fiber at Cranbrook Academy of Art, will join EMU as a visiting chair beginning in September of 2024, and is scheduled for several campus wide and community events from January-April, 2025.
Quiñones plans to engage with EMU through the Marking Place project, launching in Fall 2024 at Eastern Michigan University. The Marking Place project includes a series of discussions, interactive assignments, public lectures, an ekphrastic poetry reading, major exhibitions and use of the forthcoming Windgate Arts Complex on our north campus. Activities will include EMU faculty, students and the wider community of Ypsilanti.
The starting point will be the study of the existing sculptures on EMU campus and throughout Ypsilanti to consider ways students can open dialogues and offer multiple narratives through art. “In the past decade, there has been substantial discussion on the role of statues, monuments, and memorials, and how they reflect (or don’t reflect) the people, histories, and events of a place,” says Dr. Quiñones. The Marking Place project invites students from all disciplines to consider: “What do we as a community need to remember? How do we honor multiple histories in a public space? And, what are alternatives to the idea of 'the monument'?"
Quiñones' mixed media sculptures focus broadly on issues of race, class, gender and sexuality, and recent work specifically examines how narratives of the domestic, family, and womanhood are complicated by a history of slavery, stolen labor, and racism. As a queer Black artist, Quiñones has a distinctive vantage point from which to probe these consequential issues, and indeed reflects the ideals of the CAS position on diversity, equity, and inclusion. While Quiñones’s work has achieved impressive recognition in the art world, we are excited by how their work and engagement at EMU will impact our uniquely diverse student body. Quiñones' Marking Place project will investigate local monuments and sculptures as a way of exploring multiple narratives – a direct reflection of EMU’s commitment “to more fully account for the contributions or counter-narratives of previously neglected or marginalized groups."
EMU community members interested in participating in the program and instructors interested in integrating the Marking Place project into their winter 2025 classes may contact Associate Dean James Egge or Professor Margeaux Claude.
Photo credit: Kohler Co. Courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Nominations For the 2025-26 McAndless Chair Are Now Being Accepted
McAndless Distinguished Chair Nomination Form
Nominations are due November 1, 2024. Please see the form for more information.
About the McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair
Every year the M. Thelma McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair in the Humanities brings to the College of Arts and Sciences a visiting scholar, writer, or artist of national prominence in the arts or humanities. The chair was established in 1986 through a generous bequest from the late M. Thelma McAndless, Professor of English Language and Literature.
McAndless Committee Members
Victor Okafor, Africology & African-American Studies
Leslie Atzmon, Art & Design
Jeromy Hopgood, Communication, Media & Theatre Arts
Melissa Jones, English Language & Literature
Steven Ramold, History & Philosophy
Anderson Romero, Music & Dance
Laura McMahon, Women's & Gender Studies
Audrey Viguier, World Languages
Megan Moore, Honors College
James Egge, Dean's OfficePast McAndless Professors
2023 The Formosa Quartet
2022 Petra Kuppers
2021 Kevin Boyle
2020 Jeremy Crampton, Claudia Hart, and Stephanie Kerschbaum
2019 Corine Vermeulen
2018 José Carlos Aguiar de Souza
2016 Alison Kafer
2015 Annette J. Saddik
2014 Daniel Johnston
2013 Laurie A. Finke
2012 Evan Roth
2011 Mark Carnes
2010 Farzaneh Milani
2009 Ali Mazrui
2008 Marshall Poe
2007 N. Scott Hofmann
2006 Scott McCloud
2005 Ben Vereen
2003 Jayne Cortez
2002 Cheryl Dileo
2002 Gillian Eaton
2000 Bouthaina Shaaban
1999 Susan Tatershall
1998 Roger W. Wilkins
1996 Sarah Daniels
1996 Tom Regan
1995 Gwynne Dyer
1993 Bei Dao
1993 Nicholas Pennell
1991 Sondra Freckelton
1990 Kenneth Burke
1990 Nancy Ford
1988 Peter Strevens
1988 Richard Hunt
1986 Maxine Hong Kingston