Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, has announced a large number of promotions of faculty members to the rank of full professor. Included among the promotions are those of two African American women.
Maria I. Marshall was promoted to full professor of agricultural economics. She has been a member of the Purdue University faculty since 2003. Dr. Marshall is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She earned a master’s degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Kansas State University.
Venetria K. Patton was named full professor of English and African American studies. She joined the faculty at the university in 2003. Professor Patton is a graduate of the University of La Verne in California and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Riverside. She is the author of Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women’s Fiction (State University of New York Press 2000).