Robert E. Hegel, Ph.D., professor of Chinese in Asian and Near Eastern Languages & Literatures in Arts & Sciences, became the first holder of the Liselotte Dieckmann Professorship in Comparative Literature during a Feb. 2 ceremony in Holmes Lounge.
The professorship is a gift of the late William H. Matheson, Ph.D., a professor of comparative literature and a member of the Committee on Comparative Literature in Arts & Sciences, who retired from teaching in 1996 after 25 years at the University.
Matheson made the bequest to honor his mentor and the person responsible for his joining the faculty. The gift was augmented with funds from the University’s Sesquicentennial Endowed Professorship Challenge.
“The professorship honors three great citizens and scholars of Washington University: Liselotte Dieckmann, Bill Matheson and Bob Hegel,” Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said. “By naming his gift after his mentor, Bill pays homage to those who came before him and creates a permanent reminder of the link that connects present and future scholars and teachers with the past.
“We are greatly indebted to his life’s work and to this selfless gift that will benefit generations to come.”
Hegel has been at the University for more than 30 years. A leading scholar in traditional Chinese fiction, his teaching and research focus on early modern China from 1300-1900, specifically the fiction of the middle Ming and Qing period, as well as theater.
In addition to two books, Reading Illustrated Fiction in Late Imperial China and The Novel in Seventeenth Century China, he has authored many essays, several translations of literary works and theoretical articles, and a scholarly handbook. He has also co-edited a volume called Expressions of Self in Chinese Literature, and will have another, Writing and Law in Late Imperial China, published early next year.
During his tenure, Hegel has taught a broad array of courses, and has chaired both the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages & Literatures and the Committee on Comparative Literature.
He received the University’s Founders Day Award in 1989, and in 2001 he was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. On three occasions, he has received special recognition for excellence in mentoring from the Graduate Student Senate.
A member of the Association of Asian Studies and the Society for Ming Studies, Hegel contributes actively to professional associations and referees journal articles and monograph manuscripts.
Liselotte “Lilo” Dieckmann arrived in St. Louis by a rather circuitous route. She was a native of Frankfurt, Germany, and grew up in a culture that provided broad exposure to the classical and liberal arts. After studying languages and literatures at German universities, she earned a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1927.
She began her teaching career at the University of Istanbul, Turkey, in 1938, but soon moved with her family to St. Louis, where she taught at John Burroughs High School.
She joined WUSTL’s French department in 1945, and two years later the German department, which she chaired from 1963-67. She was promoted to full professor in 1959 and taught until her retirement in 1971.
Even then, she remained active in comparative literature and continued her scholarly work.
During her many years at the University, Dieckmann carved out a distinguished career as a scholar of German and French literature, and she served as a model for female faculty, becoming the first woman here to chair a department. She died in 1994.
Her considerable intellectual acumen and energy left a deep mark on her junior colleague.
“Bill Matheson’s legacy is an abiding love for the humanities, and it endures through this professorship,” said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor, dean of Arts & Sciences and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences.
“Washington University is a much better place because of Bill and Liselotte, and Bob richly deserves this honor.”