Rayburn and Nancy Spann Watkins Endowed Visiting Professorship

Established: October 4, 1999

Purpose

The purpose of this endowment is to establish an Endowed Visiting Professorship in Creative Writing to be housed in the Department of English and Philosophy in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. The position is competitive and is designed to bring faculty of national scholarly recognition to Murray State University. The ideal candidate will hold an MFA or equivalent degree and will be an emerging, published and nationally respected author, poet or playwright who has teaching experience. 

The Nancy and Rayburn Watkins Endowed Visiting Professorship will be used to augment and support the department’s Creative Writing Program. Currently, the university provides excellent support for the program through the support of a reading series and the Jesse Stuart Writer’s Symposium. The endowment interest will support graduate student research and development for our new low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program. 

The Nancy and Rayburn Watkins Endowed Visiting Professor will be an active author, poet, or playwright whose creative works will be broadly disseminated through publications, lecture, and workshops.