Issue date: 9/25/08 Section: News

Vanissa Murphy, professor of music and theatre arts, has been chosen as the 10th recipient of the Maxwell Schoenfeld Distinguished Professorship.

The Professorship was originally created in honor of Maxwell Schoenfeld, a UW-Eau Claire history professor, scholar, and mentor from 1964 until his death in 1996, who incidentally taught several of today's faculty. The award recognizes achievement in both teaching and scholarship.

Murphy said she feels honored to have been chosen as the recipient.

"This is a very meaningful and especially poignant award to receive…especially because it (the award) has a personal meaning on this campus," she said. "I'm incredibly humbled…I'm so appreciative."

A monetary award accompanies the professorship, to be used for professional development, Murphy said.

She could not hide her enthusiasm as she explained what she plans to do with the funds. "I'm so excited," she said, her face lighting up.

Murphy would like to use these funds, she said, to study at the Mind and Brain Institute at Harvard University this summer.

"It's something I've been dreaming of," she said. "This will really enable me to do that."

Murphy has also applied for a sabbatical, during which she hopes to work on a project with funds from the professorship. She hopes to study brain-based learning as it relates to teacher education in general and more specifically to music education, she said.

"There have been a lot of advances recently in what we know about how people learn," Murphy said. "There are several things that look very promising in how studying music might also help us learn across other content areas. This has a great use for us as music educators."

Murphy is in her 20th year at Eau Claire. She has two degrees in music performance and a PhD in music education with an emphasis on pedagogy and elementary music education. She obtained her bachelor's degree from Middle Tennessee State University, her master's degree from the University of Kentucky and her PhD from the University of North Texas.

After attending the Mind and Brain Institute and conducting her research, Murphy hopes to bring back an advanced knowledge of brain-based learning to her students at Eau Claire.

This will be useful to students at Eau Claire, she said, because the most important thing is to ensure they are effective and efficient learners.

"Being able to have funding for this kind of professional development will help me be a better teacher, which will, in turn, be of great benefit to my students."

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