Accessibility and Affordability |
The Public Humanities |
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Bill has long been dedicated to making institutions more inclusive and welcoming to all. He has also been an outspoken advocate for accessibility and affordability in higher education. He has spearheaded efforts to build innovative programs (and change campus cultures) to support first-generation college students and low-income students and to develop more inclusive curricula and academic programs.
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Teaching and research should not end at the edge of campus, and Bill has always been committed to taking his scholarship to audiences beyond the classroom. Importantly, the public humanities is as much about listening and learning as talking and teaching, and Bill has regularly been enlightened and inspired in small Kansas public libraries, sci-fi fan conventions, and middle-school cafeterias.
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International Engagement |
Great BBQ |
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Bill has been committed throughout his professional career to promoting international and world language education, encouraging study abroad and educational exchange, and nurturing grassroots diplomacy. The world will be a safer, more prosperous, and more joyful, creative place the more we understand, trust, and engage across
borders, oceans, and cultures. |
Bill grew up in central Texas, the home of the world's
greatest BBQ. The only legitimate ingredients in exceptional BBQ are brisket, salt, pepper, and smoke (preferably from Texas post oak). Sauce (if you need it) shouldn't be sticky and sweet. Pulled pork is just fine (like that Hollywood Godzilla movie with Matthew Broderick) but it ain't the real thing. |
Art of the Great Plains |
And All the Rest |
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Bill and Marjorie have long collected historic art of the
Great Plains, especially from Kansas, especially original prints, and especially regionalist works from the 1920s and 1930s. Their collection has been featured in exhibitions at the Beach Museum of Art and the Lawrence Arts Center. They have co-authored a number of articles and chapters on the history of Kansas art. |
Japan, of course. Britain, not least because that's where Bill and Marjorie met. Cats and dogs (especially cats). Sentimental and corny Tora-san movies. Reading voraciously and eclectically (current book recommendation: Excellent Women by Barbara Pym). Corn dogs. Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi. And trainspotting (yes, standing around on station platforms noting down the numbers of locomotives).
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The Pitts & Spitts smoker, a good companion since 2003
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"Christmas Morning" by Lloyd Foltz, c.1939
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Trainspotting at Westbury, Wiltshire, 2015
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