Madison U. Sowell
Madison U. Sowell is the provost at Southern Virginia University, a liberal arts college located in southwestern Virginia, and former trustee of the First Freedom Center, whose mission is to advance the human rights of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.
He is also a professor emeritus of Italian and comparative literature at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he taught for three decades (1979-2009). He served as the chair of BYU's department of French and Italian (1989-1998), an Alcuin Fellow, a Karl G. Maeser General Education Professor, Scheuber and Veinz Professor of Humanities and Languages, and as the director of the BYU Honors Program and an associate dean of undergraduate education (2006-2009). He is a specialist in the epic tradition of Italian literature from Dante to Tasso and the author and editor of several books, including Dante and Ovid: Essays in Intertextuality and a translation of The Cabala of Pegasus by Giordano Bruno (Yale University Press). He has also served as the organizer of various library and museum exhibits of rare dance books and prints.[1]
Sowell was born and reared in Piggott, Arkansas, where he still owns and maintains family cotton and rice farms. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) when he was 17, shortly before beginning his undergraduate studies in the BYU Honors Program. He then served a mission in the Italy North Mission (1971-1973).
Sowell has a bachelor's degree summa cum laude from BYU (1975) and a master's degree (1976) and Ph.D. (1979) in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University, where he won the Jacoby Prize for scholarship and his department's travel-study prize for outstanding teaching. At Harvard he studied Italian literature with Dante Della Terza (a pupil of Luigi Russo), Italian Renaissance history with the renowned historian Felix Gilbert, and epic poetry with the celebrated translator Robert Fitzgerald.
Sowell has written over 100 articles, book reviews, and essays primarily related to Dante and Italian literature. His illustrated book Il Balletto Romantico (Palermo: L'Epos, 2007) was co-authored with Debra H. Sowell, a dance historian and Southern Virginia University professor of humanities who is also his wife. He has also served as an editor of the Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association.
In early 2009, Sowell was appointed a member of the board of trustees of Southern Virginia University, where he lectured on Dante and medieval and Renaissance art and participated in the Executive Lecture series. On July 29, 2010, he was appointed Interim Provost at SVU.[2] On April 12, 2011, he became the provost at Southern Virginia. The provost reports to and works closely with the president, is the chief academic officer and leads the university’s academic areas and faculty.
Sowell served from 1998 to 2001 as president of the Italy Milan Mission. He has also served as an LDS high councilor, bishop, a Missionary Training Center branch president, a ward Young Men's president, and a counselor in the West Virginia Charleston Mission presidency.
Notes
Sources
- Madison U. Sowell at the MLCA Database
- Mormon Times, April 4, 2009.
- Amazon.com listing of works by Sowell
- Sowell, Madison U. (2001). "At the Precipice". In S. Kent Brown, Kaye T. Hanson and James R. Kearl. Finding God at BYU. Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center. pp. 26–38. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
- BYU faculty bio
- article by Sowell in BYU Magazine
- Southern Virginia University announcement of new members of the board of trustees
- Southern Virginia University announcement of Sowell as Interim Provost