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Rocky Mount, N.C.—Dr. Richard L. Watson III, professor of history at North Carolina Wesleyan College, has been named Jefferson Pilot Professor for the 2003-2004 academic year. The honor is the highest that Wesleyan bestows upon a member of its faculty. It carries a stipend and requires the professor selected to research a topic on which he will present a public lecture in the spring.

The award was established in 1981 by the Jefferson Pilot Life Insurance Company to recognize tenured faculty members who have distinguished themselves as teachers, scholars, and members of the Wesleyan community. The recipient is nominated by a committee of the faculty, recommended by the dean of the College, and appointed by the president.

This is the second time that Watson has been chosen as the Jefferson Pilot Professor. He first received the honor for the 1986-87 academic year.

Watson earned his B.A. degree from Duke University and his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Boston University. He has taught African, European, and Afro-American history at Wesleyan since 1972. His research focuses on 19^th century South African history, particularly on the roles of missionaries and slavery. This research has produced a number of articles in professional journals and a book, The Slave Question: Liberty and Property in South Africa, published in 1990. Currently he is studying the changes South African society underwent when slavery was abolished, and is interested in comparing that experience to the same period in the United States after the Civil War.

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