Fortune to Deliver CAS Spring Lecture April 29

Illinois State University Professor Ron Fortune will present “Scattered Impostures: Writing and the Work of Literary Forgery” as part of the College of Arts and Sciences Spring Lecture series on Tuesday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m. in the Bone Student Center Old Main Room.  The presentation is free and open to the public.

Being named a College of Arts and Sciences Lecturer is one of the highest honors bestowed upon a faculty member by the College.  Recipients are accorded this honor in recognition of the excellence of their professional attainments, exemplifying the values and mission of Illinois State University and the College of Arts and Sciences; in particular, they demonstrate the active pursuit of learning, creative activity, scholarship and research, as well as their dissemination through publication and teaching.

Fortune received his Ph.D. from Purdue University.  After four years on the Ohio State University faculty, he came to Illinois State in 1981.  Fortune was chair of the department for 10 years.  During the 1992-93 school year, he served as interim associate vice president for Academic Planning and Program Development, and was coordinator of the NCA Self-Study that year. 

For 13 years, Fortune was director of a series of NEH Summer Institutes for high school teachers focusing on the use of literary manuscripts in literature and writing instruction and is a member of the Illinois State University team participating in the Modern Language Association Project on the preparation of secondary English teachers. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Columbus Foundation have funded other projects he has directed which focused on various aspects of the teaching of English. 

His articles on the connection between literature and writing instruction, on the use of manuscripts in the classroom, and the development of hypertext and hypermedia applications for the teaching of English have appeared in many professional journals.  He edited and contributed to School-College Collaborative Programs in English, a book of essays published by the Modern Language Association which describe exemplary school-college collaborative programs throughout the country.