Dr. Lillian Campbell has garnered a reputation as a successful instructor and mentor for both undergraduate and graduate students, especially with respect to matters of diversity and inclusion. Her commitment has been displayed through her work co-designing the Foundations in Rhetoric course — the only course that nearly every first-year student at Marquette must take — alongside Dr. Cedric Burrows to meet the ever-changing lived experiences of students.

“Through her management and mentoring of the courses’ graduate and NTT instructors, and her redesign of the Foundations in Rhetoric course trajectory to incorporate a timely Black Lives Matter module, Dr. Campbell has helped transform this course into an absolutely life-changing experience for our first years,” said Dr. Gerry Canavan, chair and associate professor of English.

Campbell also serves as a faculty fellow with the Institute for Women’s Leadership and has worked to increase on-campus resources during times of pain for members of the campus community and developed summer reading communities devoted to anti-racism and pedagogy. Her efforts are guided by a lens of helping students, colleagues and herself recognize the ways that language and communication have always been and will continue to be sites of both oppression and resistance.

“I am incredibly grateful for Marquette’s recognition of our work in Foundations in Rhetoric to foster student understanding of the relationship between language, race and culture,” Campbell said. “In the process of developing and revising this curriculum and supporting instructors over the last three years, I have continued to grow in my own understanding of anti-racist practices, and I recognize everyday how that work is ongoing and incomplete. I am honored to accept this recognition on behalf of all of the instructors and students in our program who do the daily work of navigating difficult conversations, challenging prior beliefs and striving for a more equitable future.”