Shirley Strum Kenny (born 1934) is an English scholar and retired university president. Kenny was the fourth president of Stony Brook University from 1994 until the end of the 2008-2009 academic year. She was the first woman to hold that position. She had served as the president of Queens College from 1985 to 1994. In 2012, Kenny served as the interim president of Augusta State University upon the retirement of its long time president William A. Bloodworth from July 1 until the position was eliminated on December 31, 2012 as a result of Augusta State University's merger with Georgia Health Sciences University on August 10 of the same year.

Life and achievements

Kenny grew up in

Tyler, Texas Tyler is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the largest city and county seat of Smith County, Texas, Smith County. It is also the largest city in Northeast Texas. With a 2020 census population of 105,995, Tyler was the List of cities in Texa ...

.Winegarten, Ruthe, and Cathy Schechter. ''Deep in the Heart: The Lives & Legends of Texas Jews''. Austin TX: Eakin Press, 1990. She holds a bachelor's degree in English and journalism from the University of Texas-Dallas, an M.A. from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

, a Ph.D. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, and honorary doctorates from the University of Rochester, and Chonnam National, Dongguk, and Ajou Universities in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. She has taught at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, Gallaudet University,

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

, the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

and the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

. At Maryland, she was successively chair of the Department of English and provost of the College of Arts and Humanities. Kenny has published five books and numerous articles in the field of Restoration and eighteenth-century British drama. Her two-volume scholarly edition of the dramatic works of George Farquhar was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. Kenny sits on the boards of directors of numerous corporations. She is married to Dr. Robert W. Kenny, and they have five children and four grandchildren.

References

External links

Shirley Strum Kenny Arts Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenny, Shirley Strum Presidents of Stony Brook University University of Minnesota alumni 1935 births Living people University of Chicago alumni Gallaudet University faculty Catholic University of America faculty Presidents of Queens College, City University of New York