English professor recognized with College Language Association lifetime achievement award

April 30, 2012
Daryl Dance, professor of English, has been recognized by the College Language Association (CLA) with a lifetime achievement award.
 
The award, established and endowed by Joanne Gabbin and Trudier Harris, was named for Dance, who has been active in the CLA for more than 40 years. Dance presented her first paper at a program sponsored by members of the CLA, and published her first article in the CLA Journal.
 
“It was one of the greatest honors of my career,” Dance said of the award. “I was so surprised and shocked that I had to be assisted to the stage, and others had to tell me later what happened and what was said.”

In recent years, the focus of the CLA has been, for the most part, on literature of the African Diaspora. The CLA was founded in 1937 by a group of professors from black colleges and universities to promote productive scholarship among teachers of language and literature, Dance said. “Its members now consist of scholars from universities throughout this country and the world."
 
The Daryl Cumber Dance Award for Lifetime Achievement will henceforth be given in even-numbered years at the annual conference of the CLA.