Gerald L. Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters, professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies, all in Arts & Sciences, has been appointed by Gov. Bob Holden to the Missouri Academic Resource Team, which will serve as an advisory group to the Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
“I am pleased to be asked to serve the state of Missouri in this way and look forward to serving the commission in whatever way it needs me,” Early said.
Constituents of the Academic Resource Team are selected from the academic community to provide technical and policy-related information and other assistance as requested by the commission in fulfilling its mission. Holden created the commission to make recommendations on how Missouri can strengthen the link between higher education and economic growth in the state.
Early, who also is director of the International Writers Center in Arts & Sciences, is the editor of several volumes, including The Sammy Davis, Jr., Reader (2001) and The Muhammad Ali Reader (1998). Early is the author of The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture, which won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.