English Professor and Poet Receives Top Faculty Honor
Image by Ed Brennen
English Prof. and award-winning poet Sandra Lim, right, was recognized as UML's 2023 Distinguished University Professor during a ceremony with Chancellor Julie Chen at University Crossing.
12/15/2023
By Ed Brennen
The end of the semester is typically hectic. On this particular Wednesday, English Prof. Sandra Lim had to order pizzas for the final meeting of her Poetry I course; she finds that students are less nervous reciting poems in front of the class when the audience is nibbling on slices.
Lim also had to join her department chair, Prof. Jonathan Silverman, for a meeting with Chancellor Julie Chen at University Crossing to discuss the program’s accreditation review — a meeting that Lim secretly wondered if she really needed to attend.
As it turned out, the meeting was a ruse. When Lim entered the conference room, she was greeted by a dozen administrators and creative writing colleagues who surprised her with the news that she had been named the 2023 Distinguished University Professor, UMass Lowell’s most prestigious academic honor for a faculty member.
“I’m flabbergasted. I feel really honored,” said Lim, an award-winning poet and expert on 20th century literature who has taught at UML since 2010.
“Writing is solitary, so it’s amazing that this honor is so outward-facing,” she said. “I want to rise to the occasion. I want to think more about how to make poetry bigger, make creative writing bigger, at the university. The award is like a stewardship, and I’m honored to get to think about that with my colleagues.”
Image by Ed Brennen
English Prof. Sandra Lim shares a laugh with her Poetry I students during their final meeting of the semester at O'Leary Learning Commons.
The annual award recognizes a tenured full professor for outstanding contributions to research, education and service to the university community.
Chen praised Lim for exemplifying “that great combination we seek in our faculty, of excelling in her work — national and international recognition for her poetry — and also excelling in the classroom.”
Provost Joseph Hartman, a member of the selection committee, added that Lim was deserving “well beyond just research and creative work. It’s everything you do, and it came through in glowing fashion.”
Lim has written three books — “Loveliest Grotesque,” winner of the Kore Press First Book Award; “The Wilderness,” winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize; and, most recently, “The Curious Thing.” Her writing has been published widely, appearing in The New York Review of Books, Poetry, The New Republic, The Baffler and The New York Times Magazine, among other publications.
Earlier this year, Lim won the prestigious Jackson Poetry Prize, which was judged by former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo and other notable poets. Lim has also received a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2020 Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Pushcart prizes, and residency fellowships from MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center and the Getty Foundation.
Image by Ed Brennen
FAHSS Dean Luis Falcon, second from right, congratulates Sandra Lim, left, on her Distinguished University Professor honor as English Department colleagues, from left, Andre Dubus III, Jonathan Silverman and Sue Kim look on.
She is the 16th UML professor to receive the award since it was established in 2008, and the fourth from the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (FAHSS).
During a busy and stressful end of the semester, Lim welcomed the good news about the award — and was proud to bring the honor back to FAHSS.
“Right now, when everyone is questioning the value of the humanities — college seems so centered around very practical considerations — there are philosophical reasons to be studying poetry, literature and critical thinking that are so invaluable,” she said.
At UML, Lim has won the English Department’s Excellence in Teaching Award, the university’s Teaching Recognition for Innovative Assessment Practices and the UMass Lowell Faculty Symposium Teaching Award.
“What Sandra has done as a poet, teacher and colleague makes her so deserving of this honor,” said Silverman, who nominated Lim for the Distinguished University Professor honor.
Image by Ed Brennen
English Prof. Sandra Lim reacts as she walks into the surprise ceremony where she learned she is the 2023 Distinguished University Professor.
Maggie Dietz, an associate professor of English and a poet, advises many of the students in Lim’s creative writing and poetry classes.
“Sandra has a particular gift for creating a relaxed atmosphere in her class where the expectations are high,” Dietz said. “She has an excellent reputation as a teacher who is in some ways challenging and uncompromising, but always with a student’s growth as an artist in mind.”
FAHSS Dean Luis Falcon said Lim’s honor is “another feather in your cap; you’re going to have to get a bigger cap.”
Born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in Northern California, Lim earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University, a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a doctorate in English from the University of California Berkeley.
Her three-year term as Distinguished University Professor will run through 2026. Other current honorees include Profs. Ramaswamy Nagarajan (plastics engineering, 2022-2025), Katherine Tucker (biomedical and nutritional sciences, 2021-2024) and Christopher Niezrecki (mechanical and industrial engineering, 2020-2023).
As part of the award, Lim will deliver a campus-wide Distinguished University Professor Lecture next spring.