Political Science and Visual Arts Scholars Receive Professorships at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross has announced that Virginia C. Raguin, professor of visual arts, has been named the next Rev. John E. Brooks, S.J., Professor in the Humanities, and Judith A. Chubb, professor of political science, has been named the next W. Arthur Garrity, Sr. Professor in Human Nature, Ethics and Society. These rotating professorships are being awarded for a term of four years each.

As the Brooks Professor, Raguin will work with students to analyze and evaluate the substantial collection of art with religious subject matter that the College has acquired over time. Consisting of more than 100 paintings and sculptures, the entire collection is in need of evaluation to identify the maker, date, subject matter, and context of each piece as well as to ascertain its physical integrity and conservation needs.

Raguin is an expert on medieval and Renaissance art and, especially, on European and American stained glass. She has curated many exhibitions in Holy Cross’ Cantor Art Gallery, including this year’s successful Catholic Collecting, Catholic Reflection 1538-1850. She also curated two exhibitions at the Museum of Biblical Art, New York City, on historical stained glass and its restoration Glory in Glass and on stained glass of the 20th century, Reflections in Glass. The author of several books, Raguin’s most recent is titled Women’s Space: Patronage, Place, and Gender in the Medieval Church (State University of New York Press, 2005), which was co-authored with Sarah Stanbury, associate professor of English at the College. She has been an active participant of the affairs of the College for more than 30 years. Raguin received her bachelor’s from Marymount College and her master’s and Ph.D. in art history from Yale University. She has been a member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1972. She lives in Medford.

Chubb’s scholarship and teaching both address the kinds of questions concerning human nature, ethics, and society appropriate to the Garrity Professorship. During her tenure in the professorship she will undertake two initiatives. First, she will design and teach a year-long course for first-year students that focuses on the theme of “Violence and Non-Violence in Theory and Practice.” Secondly, she plans to develop a complementary study abroad program in Kenya that will be concerned with themes of political violence, conflict resolution, and underdevelopment as a violation of human dignity.

A respected scholar in comparative politics, Chubb is an expert in Italian, Russian, Chinese and Indonesian politics and has written two books on Italian politics in the post-war period. She has served as chair of the department of political science for 10 years and on many major committees. She received her bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University, her master’s from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been at Holy Cross since 1978. She lives in Bolton.