Susan Henking

Susan Henking

Susan Henking at Shimer College in 2012.
14th President of Shimer College
Assumed office
2012
Preceded by Ed Noonan
Personal details
Alma mater University of Chicago Divinity School; Duke University

Susan E. Henking is a scholar of religious studies and the 14th president of Shimer College in Chicago. She was appointed to this position in July 2012.[1][2]

Henking is the first female president of this small Great Books college since its 19th-century founder, Frances Shimer, ceded control to the University of Chicago in 1896.[1] Henking is one of the small number of openly lesbian college presidents.[3][4] In an interview with Chicago's Windy City Times, Henking said of Shimer, "I have never been in a place that is more welcoming; it's amazingly welcoming on the LGBT front."[5]

Henking blogs frequently on higher education and other topics on the Huffington Post[6] and also ChicagoNow.[7] In the past she was also a regular contributor to Religion Dispatches, an online magazine of religion, politics and culture.[8]

Career

By recognizing that the phrase “I am a leader. I am also a woman” is both aspirational and descriptive, we women leaders remember both our success in navigating the politics of academe and our continuing need to challenge the status quo.

Susan Henking, 2008[9]

Susan Henking received her BA from Duke University in 1977 and her MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1979.[10] She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1988,[11] and began teaching at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1988.[10] Her doctoral dissertation was titled “Protestant Religious Experience and the Rise of American Sociology: A Contextual Study of Varieties of Secularization”.[10]

Henking taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for more than 20 years, principally in the field of religious studies. She also taught in Women's Studies. In 1992 she received the Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award.[11] She was the founding editor of the "Teaching Religious Studies" series from the American Academy of Religion.[12]

In addition to teaching at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Henking served in various administrative roles. She was the interim Dean of Faculty from 1998 to 2001. She headed the Department of Religious Studies from 2002 to 2005 and 2008 to 2009.[10] In addition, before her departure in the summer of 2012, she served as adviser to the Board of Trustees.[13]

Henking has also written and taught in the field of LGBT studies. Often her work has been at the junction of LGBT studies and religious studies, as in Que(e)rying Religion the volume she co-edited in 1997. She co-chaired the department of LGBT studies at HWS,[14] which was the first such program in the nation to offer a major.[15]

Shimer College presidency

In early 2012, Henking was chosen to become the 14th president of Shimer College. Her selection was the a result of an exhaustive nationwide search led by Shimer alumnus and international relations scholar Robert Keohane. Keohane described her as "ideally suited to become the next president of Shimer College."[16] She was the first regular president of Shimer College after the acrimonious departure of Thomas Lindsay in 2010. During the intervening two years, the presidency was filled on an interim basis by Ed Noonan.

Shortly after assuming the presidency, Henking wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times:

Although liberal arts colleges serve smaller populations than do larger public institutions, we can be a valuable resource for our communities. We have the flexibility as institutions to develop and implement new ways of improving access and fixing costs. And we have the responsibility. I call on other liberal arts colleges in the Chicago area and across the country to join Shimer College in this effort.[17]
Since then, Henking has appeared in the Chicago Sun Times, the New York Times, Inside Higher Education, University Business and more, arguing for the important of liberal education and for the value of tiny colleges.

Works

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References

  1. 1 2 "Dr. Susan Henking Appointed 14th President of Shimer College: First Woman named President since Founder Frances Wood Shimer". Shimer.edu. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  2. ↑ "College News: Malcolm X gets a new campus, Shimer gets a president". Chicago Reader. 2012-02-21.
  3. ↑ "Lesbian appointed head of Chicago's Shimer College". Windy City Times. 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
  4. ↑ Susan Henking (2013-05-07). "LGBTQ Chicago Presidents". ChicagoNow. Retrieved 2013-05-22.
  5. ↑ Forman, Ross (2015-01-14). "Shimer College president talks about 'worst college' label".
  6. ↑ "Susan Henking". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  7. ↑ "About Shimer Prez". ChicagoNow. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
  8. ↑ "Contributors: Susan Henking". Religion Dispatches. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  9. ↑ Susan Henking (2008). "Campus Women Lead". On Campus with Women. 37 (1). Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Curriculum Vitae of Susan E. Henking" (PDF). 2010. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  11. 1 2 Hobart and William Smith Colleges. "Religious Studies: Susan Henking". Retrieved 2012-07-18.
  12. ↑ Hobart and William Smith Colleges. "Faculty Information". Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  13. ↑ "Susan Henking". Inside Higher Ed. 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2012-08-14.
  14. ↑ "Henking Named Shimer President". 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  15. ↑ Pat Flynn (2011-10-04). "SDSU second in nation to offer LGBT major". UTSanDiego.com. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
  16. ↑ "Comments from Others". Shimer.edu. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  17. ↑ Susan Henking. "Colleges Can Improve Access, Fix Costs".
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