Frederick Latimer Wells Professor of Chinese, Emerita
Your name is virtually synonymous with the advancement of Chinese language teaching at Williams.
As our longest-serving faculty member in that discipline, you have helped build our curriculum and departmental culture since your arrival in 1989, enabling Chinese language study to thrive as a distinct field of study.
During your term as chair, you helped grow program enrollment and interest significantly. Your successes included popular courses on the formation of Taiwanese identity and on Chinese for “heritage speakers”: students who grew up speaking Chinese at home but were never formally introduced to the rigors of grammar and style. You have been similarly successful in your work as director of Middlebury College’s distinguished summer language program. Just last month, you were honored for your service with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chinese Language Teachers Association of the United States.
From the newest student to the most experienced colleague, people consistently describe you as a guiding light and inspiration. Recalling your first meeting, one colleague says, “Hearing her voice, I immediately felt so at home here.”
In settings across campus and beyond, many have heard your voice and felt the same. On their behalf: Thank you.
I hereby declare you the Frederick Latimer Wells Professor of Chinese, Emerita, entitled to all the rights, honors and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 8, 2025