LEWISTON – Dr. Robert Schaible, a professor of arts and humanities at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, has completed his tenure as holder of the Walter E. Russell Chair in Education and Philosophy at the University of Southern Maine.

Schaible presented a lecture and series of faculty forums examining the university’s larger role in society. The four symposia were titled “Is USM Failing Democracy? Higher Education, Democracy and the USM Curriculum.”

In a recent interview Schaible noted that he centered his efforts as Russell chair on focusing faculty attention more directly on political and social issues and on the role education might play in addressing those issues.

“For the first semester, I dealt primarily with issues of social and economic justice,” Schaible said. “I have been particularly concerned about the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor and I’m interested in whether or not the core curriculum at the university really does introduce students to the problems we face and ways that we might set about solving them.”

Schaible received his Ph.D. in American literature from the University of Tennessee. His interests encompass interdisciplinary studies and the importance of multicultural studies in American history.

He delivered the keynote address at Drury University’s fourth annual conference on interdisciplinary research and teaching in March. He also directed a seminar on “The Meaning of Human in the Poetry of Stephen Dunn” at the 48th annual Star Island Conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science. Schaible is vice president for Conferences of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science.