Harry Elam wins Alumni Association's Lyman Award

Drama Professor Harry Elam has been named winner of the 2003 Lyman Award, which recognizes outstanding volunteer service to the Alumni Association and the university.

"Harry's interest in promoting lifelong learning is exhibited by his willingness to travel, give lectures and support educational activities for alumni wherever we need him," according to alumni education director Holly Haley Knapp. "He has given annual lectures at Reunion Homecoming and Alumni Day, and this past August he spoke at the second annual Open House for Alumni of Color. He traveled with us during the Think Again events, gave a lecture to our New York alumni last fall and will participate with us at Stanford Day in Boston."

Established by the Alumni Association in 1983 to honor President Emeritus Richard W. Lyman, the prize includes $1,500 to purchase books and materials for the University Libraries in areas of special interest to the recipient.

A scholar of theater as a means for social change, Elam is the author of Taking It to the Streets: The Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri Baraka (1997) and co-editor of several anthologies, including African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader (2001). His forthcoming book, The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson, is due out in January.

He has worked as a theater director for professional and university productions since the mid-1980s.

Elam is director of graduate studies in drama, as well as of the Stanford Irvine Institute for Diversity in the Arts and the Committee on Black Performing Arts. He served as inaugural director of the Introduction to the Humanities Program.

Last year, he was selected as one of the first University Fellows in Undergraduate Education, a distinction for faculty who make outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. He holds the Robert and Ruth Halperin University Fellowship.

He also has received five Stanford teaching awards, including the Rhodes Prize, Bing Fellowship and Dean's Award.

• Stanford Drama department faculty