Chafe is a world-renowned expert on American Indian linguistics and a pioneer in the field of language and cognition. In retirement, he published a capstone book for his life's work on language and discourse, at the same time breaking new ground with the first book-length treatment of laughter and humor in linguistics. He has made a place for himself at the center of his department's intellectual life.
Hine is an iconic figure in the historiography of the American West and a prolific writer whose retirement publications include a critically acclaimed biography of philosopher Josiah Royce, two ubiquitous undergraduate textbooks in history, two memoirs, and two historical novels soon to be released. He was recalled to UC Irvine in the year that he retired, and he has been a stimulating and valued colleague there.
Brief accounts of their work in retirement follow.
Professors Chafe and Hine are the twentieth and twenty-first UC emeriti professors to receive the Constantine Panunzio Award. The late Panunzio, a professor of sociology at UCLA for many years, has been described as the architect of the UC Retirement System and was particularly active in improving pensions and stipends for his fellow emeriti. The award bearing his name was established in 1983 and includes a $5,000 prize.
ROBERT HINE
Since his retirement in 1990, Robert Hine, an iconic figure in the historiography of the American West, has single-handedly compiled a reading list that would be the envy of any writer, scholarly or otherwise. In 1992, he published Josiah Royce: From Grass Valley to Harvard, an insightful study of the philosopher's work as well as a compelling survey of the late 19th-century American West. The following year, his memoir, Second Sight, recorded his struggle with the midlife loss and eventual return of his eyesight.
Over the next few years, he worked with John Mack Faragher of Yale University, another of the most highly regarded historians of the American West, on a heavily revised edition of The American West: An Interpretive History, published in 2000. Professor Faragher was an undergraduate research assistant of professor Hine when the latter wrote the first edition more than 30 years ago. In 2004, professor Hine published a new condensed text, Frontiers: A Short History of the American West. The two books are omnipresent in undergraduate classrooms across the nation.
Working with his wife, Shirley, professor Hine composed a memoir of the family's struggle with their adopted daughter's mental illness, issued in 2006. This year, two historical novels are due for release: I Have Seen the Fire: A Novel Inspired by the Life of Sarah Royce, about Josiah Royce's mother, a writer on frontier travel; and The Road to Llano: A Novel, based on the career of Job Harriman, a notable Socialist.
All of these works reflect not merely an explosion of creativity but also a lifetime's immersion in his field of study. professor Hine has received three lifetime achievement awards since his retirement.
Meanwhile, professor Hine has served on the faculty at UC Irvine, recalled there in the same year that he retired after 36 years at UC Riverside. At Irvine, he has been a valued participant in the intellectual life of the School of Humanities and an informal mentor for colleagues and students alike.
WALLACE CHAFE
Since his retirement in 1991, Wallace Chafe, one of the founders of the discourse-based functional paradigm in linguistics, and a leading scholar in American Indian linguistics, as well as a pioneer in the field of language and cognition, has continued to push the boundaries in these areas while launching new research endeavors. His Discourse, Consciousness, and Time: The Flow and Displacement of Conscious Experience in Speaking and Writing, is a masterpiece culminating decades of pioneering research. With The Importance of Not Being Earnest: The Feeling Behind Laughter and Humor, he breaks new ground with the first comprehensive book-length treatment of laughter and humor in linguistics.
At the same time, he has written widely on discourse analysis and language and cognition, and he travels extensively to speak about his research. A book in progress will trace the history of American linguistics.
Professor Chafe continues to be a leader in American Indian linguistics, specifically the languages Iroquois, Seneca, and Caddo. In the two years following his retirement, he conducted a major National Science Foundation-funded study of Seneca discourse. Because Caddo and Seneca are moribund languages, used only by a handful of elderly speakers, professor Chafe's work makes a critical contribution to the cultural heritage of their peoples. He also supports the Seneca's bilingual education program. A symposium in honor of Wallace Chafe was held in 2005 at the Louvain Institute in Belgium, recognizing his seminal contributions to the preservation of indigenous languages.
Formerly a professor at both UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara, professor Chafe was recalled by the Santa Barbara campus in 2002. He has chaired or served on more than a dozen Ph.D. committees in retirement, and he is an active participant in both the National American Indigenous Languages group and the Workshop on American Indigenous Languages. He opens his home for an annual party as each academic year begins, and he hosts a January gathering for prospective graduate students. Thus, he continues to be a central figure, not only in the field of linguistics, but also in campus life.