Fibers' head Rowland Ricketts recommended as Provost Professor

Provost Professors, Herman B Wells Professor, recipients of Sonneborn, Burgan, Venkat awards named

Source: Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs

Three Indiana University Bloomington faculty members will be recommended to the IU Board of Trustees for appointment as Provost Professors. These three outstanding members of the IU faculty, along with one honoree recommended for appointment as a Class of 1948 Herman B Wells Professor, will be recognized alongside the 2024 Tracy M. Sonneborn awardees, the Mary Burgan Distinguished Service awardee and the M.A. Venkataramanan “Venkat” Distinguished Service awardee.

“These faculty members have refined their pedagogy, research and modes of engagement to the highest standard, serving as inspiration not only for our campus but for their fields and every community influenced by their endeavors,” said Rahul Shrivastav, IU Bloomington provost and executive vice president. “I am immensely proud to work alongside these trailblazing scholars.”

Those recommended for appointment as Provost Professors are William P. Hetrick in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; Rowland Ricketts in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design’s fibers area; and Andrea Wiley in the College’s Department of Anthropology.

The Provost Professorship, originally called Chancellor’s Professor, was created in 1995 to honor those who have achieved local, national and international distinction in both teaching and research/creative activity. The Herman B Wells Professorship was endowed by the IU Bloomington classes of 1948 and 1950 and recognizes faculty on the Bloomington campus who embrace deep concern for the well-being of students and devotion to diversity, inclusion and academic excellence, reflecting the values of Herman B Wells.

All of the award recipients were recommended by a faculty committee sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs. All honorees will be celebrated at a reception in the fall 2024 semester. 

Ricketts joined the IU Bloomington faculty as a visiting professor in the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts in 2006 and is now a professor in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design’s Studio Art program. Trained in indigo farming and dyeing in Japan, he uses natural dyes and historical processes to create contemporary textiles that span art and design.

He co-founded the Midwest Fiber Art Educators Network and has served on the board of the Textile Society of America. He served as associate dean in the Eskenazi School from 2019 to 2022 and is currently the area head for fibers.

Ricketts has received two IU Trustees Teaching Awards, a Graduate and Professional Student Government Faculty Mentor Award, a United States Artists Fellowship and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. His work has been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Seattle Art Museum.