The Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies is so renowned that Michelle Dowd, a Shakespearean and Renaissance scholar, heard about it roughly 20 years before she became the director of the program here at the Capstone. The privately endowed program, named for longtime faculty member Hudson Strode, promotes the study of early modern British literature and culture.
“The Strode Program has always had a strong reputation for the quality of the faculty, and also as a leader in the field of graduate studies,” Michelle said. “It also has a distinguished lecture series that is well-known. So, when the position opened up in 2016, I thought this would be a really remarkable opportunity.”
When Michelle received the offer to come to The University of Alabama, she was thrilled.
“This program is something I feel so strongly about; there’s an amazing opportunity to work closely with a group of faculty and graduate students who are specializing in early British studies,” Michelle said. “There really aren’t many programs in English in the country that have this level of specialization in British Renaissance literature.”
Michelle said the program’s prominence has attracted scholars nationally and internationally.
“Having the Strode Program and the endowment here makes UA a destination for studying Renaissance literature. People come here for that reason, and I think the endowment makes that possible and it gives the program, the department, the college and the University visibility,” Michelle said.
“The funding through the endowment has enabled me to conduct research trips which has enhanced my research,” she said. “There aren’t many opportunities in the humanities for those kinds of research grants. Having the endowment available to use for those research purposes has really been extraordinarily helpful for me, especially for my work on book projects.”
To supplement graduate students’ research and tuition, Michelle has also put some of her Strode endowment toward their research.
“It’s really amazing to support students, because there’s even fewer opportunities for students to have that kind of access to research funding,” she said.
While Michelle acknowledges the importance of student scholarships, she highlighted the necessity of faculty endowments such as hers.
“It’s absolutely an honor to be an endowed professor,” she said. “What an endowed position says about a university is that the university is willing to recognize the hard work and success that someone has put into their field, and that it is willing to invest in its students, the future of the program and the future of the University.”
Michelle and her husband, Michael Cowie, have committed $150,000 to the Hudson Strode Endowment Fund through their will, highlighting the impactful role giving plays in her life.
“My husband, Michael, and I have included the Strode Endowment in our estate plans as a way of giving back to a program that we believe in so strongly.”
Additionally, because of her endowment, Michelle has two forthcoming books: “Feminism, Formalism, and Early Modern Women’s Writing” and “The Arden Research Handbook to Shakespeare and His Contemporaries.”
“An endowment is not just about the individual faculty member that might hold the position at any given time,” she said “It’s about that larger investment that the University is making in its students, and it’s really putting the University on the map in this particular area.”
Through The Rising Tide Capital Campaign, UA’s goal is to create 75 new faculty endowments by September 2026.
