Two University of Evansville professors were honored August 19, 2003, with the Sadelle and Sydney Berger Awards for service and scholarly activity. Presenting the awards at the University s annual Fall Luncheon was the Berger's son, Charlie Berger, a 1969 UE graduate and senior partner and attorney with the Evansville law firm, Berger and Berger.

Michael Carson, the Melvin M. Peterson Endowed Chair of English literature, was honored with the award for service to the community and the University. He has been a professor of English at UE since 1969 and has served the University and community in a multitude of ways over the years. Carson has not only been chair of the Department of English, but also was chair of the Department of Foreign Languages for one year. He was the coordinator for the Distinguished Writer s Series for many years and was the author of a grant for a prestigious writing fellowship that selected UE as one of 15 schools in the country to participate in 1992.

Carson has been a member of many University committees, including the president s committee on the 21st Century and its subcommittees on general education and faculty governance. He has been a member of the faculty advisory committee on promotion and tenure, the Publications Board, Judicial Board, and chaired the Athletic Board as well as the Informal Learning Sequence Committee and the Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee. He served on the Task Force on Faculty Renewal, the faculty advisory committee for World Cultures, and the Undergraduate Research Committee.

In the community, he has also been active as a consultant with individuals on their prose and poetry writing, speaking at poetry programs for students or adult groups and has been a frequent judge or speaker for various contests and lectures in the area. He has served on the advisory committee of the Evansville Arts and Education Council

Carson has also been integral in developing internships with many local publications for students. As Margaret McMullan said when he was named the Peterson endowed chair of English literature: "Mike Carson is the Melvin M. Peterson professor of English that Melvin Peterson had in mind (when he established the award). Mike is not only a first-rate scholar and writer, he is the kind of teacher who inspires both students and colleagues. He is the reason many of our students come to this University." Carson holds a 1966 Bachelor of Arts degree in literature from UE.

The recipient of the Berger award for scholarly activity ironically was mentored by Carson when she began at the University 13 years ago and now serves as his boss. Margaret McMullan is professor of English at UE and has chaired the Department of English since Fall 2002.

McMullan has two novels that will be out this fall and spring. In My Mother's House is a mother-daughter novel about family secrets during WWII Vienna. It will be published in November 2004 by Thomas Dunne Books. Her other novel, How I Found the Strong, is a book for young adults and will be published in Spring 2004 by Houghton Mifflin. Strong is about a scrawny boy named Shanks who, in 1861, is not old enough to be a soldier for the Confederate army. Shanks' older brother and father go off to war, leaving Shanks home with his mother, grandparents, and the family slave.

McMullan's first novel, When Warhol was still Alive, won the Best Adult Fiction award from the Society of Midland authors. She also co-wrote the feature film Sacred Hearts with her husband Patrick, which was screened at the Lincoln Center in New York and won Best First Feature at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival.

Her work has also appeared in various magazines, journals and national newspapers including Southern Accents, Glamour, The Chicago Tribune, Brain Child, Boulevard, The Greensboro Review, New England Living, The New Press, The Palo Alto Review, and Arts Indiana, as well as in several anthologies.

McMullan earned her B.A. degree in religious studies from Grinnell College and her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Arkansas. She has been the winner of several individual artist fellowships from the Indiana Arts Commission and the NEA.

The Sadelle and Sydney Berger Awards are presented annually in memory of Sadelle, who was a UE graduate and lifelong member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences at UE, and Sydney, a well-known local attorney. Both had dedicated their lives to community service.