HAYS, KS -- Alpha Omicron Pi member Dr. Sue Firestone, professor of modern languages at Fort Hays State University, was introduced Aug. 16, 2000, as the President's Distinguished Scholar for 2000-2001 during the annual General Meeting for Faculty and Administration at FHSU.
Firestone is also chair of the Department of Modern Languages.
University President Edward H. Hammond announced the award.
Firestone, who was initiated into the AOPi chapter at the University of Pennsylvania in 1956, graduated from that university in 1959.
She was a professor of German and chair of the Department of German and Slavic Studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia, before joining the FHSU faculty in 1986. She received her A.B. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. Her M.A., in 1965, and her Ph.D., 1965, were both in German and were both earned at the University of Colorado.
During her career she was an assistant professor at Otterbein College from 1969 to 1970 before moving to the University of Missouri. There, between 1970 and 1986, she moved up the academic ranks from assistant professor to associate professor and departmental chair.
Nominees for the President's Distinguished Scholar are evaluated for their performance in service and instruction, but the primary focus is placed on their research and creative activities.
Firestone's research is in medieval German literature, primarily secular narratives from about 1180 to 1600. Her work focuses on two areas - the structure, style and history of the literature and the study of how the moral-philosophical works help give Christian moral sense to heroic epics and courtly romances.
The Distinguished Scholar Award, first given in 1989, carries a $1,000 prize and the recipient delivers a lecture at the Honors Convocation in October.