Liberal Arts welcomes three new department chairs

The College of Liberal Arts is pleased to announce the appointments of three new chairs this fall. The college, which is comprised of 13 departments and one school, welcomes Jonathan Bolton, Joyce de Vries and James Witte as the new chairs for English, Art and Art History and Aviation, respectively.

Bolton, Hollifield professor of English, specializes in modern British and Irish literature. He is the author of "Personal Landscapes: British Poets in Egypt, Blighted Beginnings: Coming of Age in Independent Ireland," and "The Blunt Affair: Official Secrecy and Treason in Literature and Film, 1980-89." His essays have appeared in such journals as Irish University Review, Modern Drama, New Hibernia Review, Journal of Modern Literature, Contemporary Literature and South Atlantic Review.

De Vries, professor of art history, specializes in the visual and material culture of Italy. She is the author of "Caterina Sforza and the Art of Appearances: Gender, Art, and Culture in Early Modern Italy," and is currently researching the collecting practices of elites and artisans in 17th century Bologna. Her work has appeared in several journals and anthologies, including Woman’s Art Journal, Journal of Women’s History, Reframing 17th-Century Bolognese Art and Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe. De Vries served as the director of the Women's Studies Program at Auburn from 2011 to 2017 and co-edited "Outside In: Voices from the Margins," a collection of essays that explore issues of diversity, inclusion and the resilience of women in higher education with Barbara Baker.

Witte, professor of adult education, is a career educator and aviator. He most recently served as the interim department chair of the Education, Foundations, Leadership and Technology Department in the College of Education. Witte has an extensive aviation background, flying both rotor-wing and fixed-wing aircrafts. He is an FAA-certified pilot and airframe mechanic, and had a 26 year career as a U.S. Army Aviator serving as an aviation maintenance officer and test pilot. He was recently inducted into the International Adult Education Hall of Fame. Leveraging his aviation and academia careers, Witte serves as an active member of the FAA’s Technical Training and Human Performance Center for Excellence, a consortium of leading aviation research institutions dedicated to helping the FAA revolutionize technical training practices and take human performance to new heights. His academic areas of interest include training program development and evaluation, individual learning styles and how learning is assessed.