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Two retiring members of the faculty have been elected to emeritus status, Susan L. Blake, professor of English, and Shyamal K. Majumdar, Gideon R., Jr., and Alice L. Kreider Professor of Biology.
Susan L. Blake specializes in American, African American, postcolonial, and travel narrative literature. She has been a member of Lafayette’s faculty for more than thirty years, serving as head of the English department from 2001 to 2004 and associate head for the prior two years. She has taught courses on American fiction, black writers, postcolonial literature, African literature, contemporary fiction, travel writing, autobiography, and author Toni Morrison. She has also taught a First-Year Seminar on race, class, and gender.
Her interest in African American literature led Blake to visit Africa on her own as a young woman and then to return five years later when she was awarded a Fulbright Senior Lectureship to teach at the Université du Benin in Lomé, Togo (1983-84). Her experience as a Fulbright Scholar in Togo led to her book, Letters from Togo, and an interest in travel narratives as a genre, particularly women’s travel narratives and British colonial narratives.
The author of 16 articles in scholarly journals and anthologies, Blake has presented aspects of her research at 22 conferences and invited lectures over the years. She has also had 15 book reviews published in scholarly journals and is an advisory editor for African American Review.
Blake joined Lafayette as an instructor of English in 1974 and was promoted to assistant professor in 1976. She became associate professor in 1981 and was promoted to full professor in 1995.
She earned her A.B. magna cum laude with highest honors in English and American literature and her A.M. both from Brown University. Her master’s thesis focused on poet W.H. Auden’s use of folklore. Blake received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, writing her dissertation on “Modern Black Writers and the Folk Tradition.”
During her career she received two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships and an Andrew Mellon faculty research fellowship, and was a visiting scholar at both the University of Iowa and Wesleyan University.
She has put considerable energy into college service, serving on 40 faculty committees, including chair of the Faculty Academic Policy Committee for two years (2001-03), chair of the Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee (1999-2000), chair of the Academic Research Committee (1997-98), chair of the Admissions, Financial Aid, and Enrollment Planning Committee (1995-96), chair of the Financial Aid Committee (1994-95), chair of the College Community Outreach Advisory Board (1994-95), and chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Black Studies (1986-87).
Shyamal K. Majumdar has been a member of Lafayette’s faculty for 37 years, serving as department head from 1992 to 2000, and guiding over 80 independent and honors research students. He has taught genetics, cell biology, bacteriology, tissue culture, and other courses in the department along with college-wide VAST courses on genetic engineering and hazardous waste management.
The co-author of one book and editor of 29 others, Majumdar published more than 135 research articles, notes, and book chapters with students. In addition he co-authored approximately 75 abstracts with biology students. He has been involved with many scholarly activities both at the state and national level. He has been the editor of the Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science and its books for 20 years. Majumdar was president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science for two years (1986-88) and president of the National Association of Academies of Science (1991-92).
Majumdar received his B.Sc. in biology from City College of Calcutta University and began his career as a researcher and botanist at the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia. He came to the U.S. to earn his M.S. in botany and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Kentucky.
After teaching for a year at Arkansas Polytechnic College, he joined Lafayette in 1969 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1975 and full professor in 1982. He served as the Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Biology for six years, from 1994 until he assumed the Kreider endowed chair in 2000.
He received Lafayette’s Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Faculty Lecture Award for scholarly activities in 1981, the Jones Award for superior teaching and scholarly contributions in 1983, the Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award in 1989, and the Mary Louise Van Artsdalen Prize for outstanding scholarly achievement in 2004.
Majumdar received the Distinguished Service Award twice from the National Association of Academies of Sciences and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pennsylvania Academy of Science for his distinguished career in science and education. He was selected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1989.
He was awarded several research grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and industry. He serves as an associate or reviewing editor for several national and international scientific journals and was an invited speaker and contributor at several scientific organizations.
During his career he served on several elected and appointed faculty committees including chair of the Committee on Advanced Study and Research (Academic Research Committee), Academic Progress Committee, and On-Campus Interim Session Committee.