The Tolley Professorship was established in 1995 to ensure continued excellence in pedagogy at Syracuse. Underwritten by private donors and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the professorship has benefited hundreds of tenured and nontenured faculty members. The two-year appointment was named to honor Chancellor Emeritus William P. Tolley, who served as Chancellor of Syracuse University from 1942 until 1969.
Meet The Current Tolley Professor
Tolley Professor Amanda Brown is an internationally recognized scholar of language teaching and learning, multilingualism and multimodal communication.
Brown, a professor of linguistics in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics and director of the Linguistic Studies Program, joined Syracuse University after experience in both industry and higher education. Her Tolley Professorship, Humanities at Work: Keeping the Human(ities) in the Loop, focuses on demonstrating the professional relevance of a humanities education amid artificial intelligence, workforce transformation and changing expectations for higher education. She earned her Ph.D. in applied linguistics through Boston University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
Amanda Brown
William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities; Professor and Director, Linguistic Studies Program
abrown08@syr.eduPast Professors
- Harvey Teres (2024-2026)
- Mike Goode (2022-2024)
- Gwendolyn Pough (2020-2022)
- Ken Frieden (2018-2020)
- Kenneth Baynes (2016-2018)
- Mark Heller (2013-2015)
- James Watts (2011-2013)
- Silvio Torres-Saillant (2009-2011)
- Robert Van Gulick (2008-2010)
- Beverly Allen (2005-2007)
- Ann Gold (2005-2007)
- Laurinda Dixon (2003-2005)
- Dympna Callaghan (1999-2003)
- David Miller (1996-1999)