May 2, 2012
Wolgast named editor of Burgon Society journal
Stephen Wolgast, assistant professor of journalism and digital media and the director of Student Publications, has been appointed as the editor of Transactions of the Burgon Society, the scholarly journal of the society, which promotes the study of academic dress in all its aspects and the publication and dissemination of research concerning academic dress.
Academic dress was established in Persia by the sixth century, in Mesopotamia by the 11th century, and in England in the 12th. The Burgon Society was founded in London in 2000.
Recent volumes of the Transactions have examined the source of the red gowns worn by Scottish undergraduates, the reasons behind the Archbishop of Canterbury’s 1991 decision to change the tradition by which academic dress is chosen for holders of Lambeth degrees, and an attempt to end the use of academic dress at Oxford during the Commonwealth in 1658. A volume focusing on North American history and modern trends was published last year and was co-edited by Wolgast and Alex Kerr, a scholar of medieval academic dress.
Wolgast, the first American to be named editor, takes over from Kerr and will be assisted by an editorial board of academics and practitioners in the United Kingdom. He was awarded fellowship in the society in 2009 and was elected to its board of trustees in 2010.
More information is online at www.burgon.org.uk.