English Professor Receives Schwartz Distinguished Faculty Award
Presented every third year, the Schwartz Award provides annual financial support for the scholarship, teaching and service of a tenured professor whose record and promise of achievement are exceptional.
Farabee's teaching and scholarship focus on the performance of plays by William Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Her published research includes a recent book"Shakespeare's Staged Spaces and Playgoers' Perceptions." She also edited and contributed to "Early Modern Drama in Performance." Farabee's current research projects include travel and perception of the early modern stage and the history of Shakespeare in South Dakota. She was also instrumental in bringing the exhibit "First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare" to the USD campus in March 2016. Vermillion was the only stop in South Dakota on a national tour of the rare book on loan from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
As a teacher, Farabee combines classroom instruction with experiential learning activities in which students attend plays, visit archives and meet with actors and directors. Through a grant from the Folger Shakespeare Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities, she takes students on trips to see Shakespeare plays in the region. In many cases, students view numerous productions in one weekend and participate in question-and-answer sessions with actors after performances. Farabee has also directed student research projects on Shakespeare in South Dakota and has led a program that brings students to experience Shakespeare at Staunton, Virginia's Blackfriars Playhouse.
The Schwartz Award exists thanks to the generosity of Truman, '56 B.A., '91 honorary doctorate and Beverly Schwartz, '56 B.S. Ed. Truman Schwartz became a Rhodes Scholar, earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from M.I.T., worked in industry, and then taught for many years at Macalester College, publishing extensively in the fields of physical chemistry and chemical education. Beverly Schwartz was a middle-school teacher in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she taught students with learning disabilities.
