Heather Cass White, a professor of English in the Barefield College of Arts and Sciences and an internationally recognized authority on modernist American poetry, is the recipient of the 2025 Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award.
White will deliver a special lecture titled “Learning to Read” and be presented with the award on Tuesday, April 28, at 4 p.m. in the English Building Auditorium. A reception will follow at the University Club.
White’s scholarship has earned national and international recognition across a distinguished 25‑year career marked by influential research, award‑winning publications, dedicated teaching and sustained service to the UA English Department. In 2024, she was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, joining just 188 recipients selected from nearly 3,000 applicants.
Her “New Collected Poems: Marianne Moore” received the Modern Language Association’s Prize for Best Scholarly Edition, an honor often compared to winning an Academy Award in the field of literary studies. She has also received the ACETA Eugene Current-Garcia Award and was one of five finalists nationwide for Phi Beta Kappa’s Christian Gauss Award for literary criticism. In 2021, she received UA’s President’s Faculty Research Award for a Senior Scholar.
White’s books and editions have been widely reviewed beyond academia, with coverage in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, Times Literary Supplement and NPR’s All Things Considered. Her recent monograph “Books Promiscuously Read” and her forthcoming volumes on Harold Bloom and the correspondence of Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore further highlight her influence in both scholarly and public literary communities.
In addition to her research, White is widely admired for her teaching and mentorship. She has taught courses ranging from undergraduate honors surveys to graduate workshops, chaired multiple dissertations and guided undergraduate and graduate research. Former and current students consistently praise her rigor, generosity and lasting impact on their intellectual and professional lives.
White has also served the department in numerous leadership roles, including director of graduate studies, director of undergraduate studies and assistant chair.
Established by Dr. and Mrs. John F. Burnum of Tuscaloosa, the award recognizes and promotes excellence in research, scholarship and teaching during a distinguished UA career. The Burnum Award Committee, comprised of former winners, screens nominees and forwards two nominees to the president, who selects the winner.