BLACKSBURG – Fred D’Aguiar, professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been named the Clifford A. Cutchins III Professor of English by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The Clifford A. Cutchins Professorship in English was established in 1989 through a gift from the Sovran Financial Corporation to recognize excellence in teaching and scholarship. Those honored with the professorship hold the position for a five-year period.
A highly accomplished creative writer, D’Aguiar came to Virginia Tech as a professor in 2003 and held the Gloria D. Smith Professorship in Africana Studies from 2006 to 2012.
His record of creative scholarship includes six novels, seven collections of poetry, four plays, six short stories, and 26 essays. His work has been produced for television, film, and radio and has been translated into many languages.
He has twice won the Phi Beta Kappa Sturm Award for Excellence in the Creative Arts. His work is recognized internationally, particularly throughout the British Commonwealth. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Kent and the University of London in the United Kingdom.
At Virginia Tech, D’Aguiar has advised five Master of Fine Arts degree student theses in creative writing, served on more than 20 Master of Fine Arts degree student committees, and is a committed teacher of undergraduate students. He served as a co-director of the Creative Writing Program from 2003 to 2006.
D’Aguiar frequently gives his time as a judge for numerous creative writing contests and engages with Blacksburg schools to teach students about creative writing and how to read poetry.
Before he came to Virginia Tech, D’Aguiar directed a successful Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at the University of Miami. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kent.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 225 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $496 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
