English Professor Sean McDowell has been named the new director of the Seattle University Honors Program, beginning September 2012.  Known for its academic rigor, the Honors Program admits students by invitation only.

McDowell replaces Philosophy Professor James Risser, who has taught in the program for more than 25 years and served as director for the past six.  The appointment is for a three-year term.

McDowell received his Ph.D. from Indiana University and joined the English Department in 2002. His research and scholarship focus on John Donne, Andrew Marvell, William Shakespeare, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, John Milton, and other Renaissance poets, as well as modern Irish writers. In 2009, he edited The Social Character of Andrew Marvell’s Imagination, a collection of essays, as a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Explorations in Renaissance Culture. 

McDowell is currently editing an electronic edition of Donne’s prose satire, Ignatius His Conclave, for the John Donne Society Digital Prose Archive.  For this project, he received a Dean’s Research Fellowship and will be assisted by junior Kathleen Banks, a University Honors, History, and English major. He received the "Most Inspirational Faculty Member" award from the 2006 graduating class.

The College of Arts and Sciences, the largest college in Seattle University, offers 42 undergraduate majors, 37 undergraduate minors, and 6 master’s degrees.