The English faculty mourns the loss of our friend and colleague, the Reverend Doctor Cynthia Gilliatt, who passed away suddenly Tuesday, August 16, 2011, after a short illness. She will be profoundly missed.

          Dr. Gilliatt, Associate Professor of English for 37 years, taught Milton, Seventeenth-Century Literature, The Bible as Literature, Mythology, and Gay and Lesbian Literature, a course she developed. Dr. Gilliatt was a founding member of Safe Zones at JMU and of Integrity/Virginia, a faith-based organization that provided spiritual space and counsel for gay members of the Episcopal Church. She was a dedicated teacher whose generosity of spirit, delight in the written word, and wicked sense of humor warmed all who knew her. A passionate advocate for the liberal arts, she once wrote that,

          “A liberal arts education liberates you. It liberates you from ignorance and from knowing only
          a narrow part of your own culture. It liberates you to think usefully about new ideas and
          new encounters with cultures other than your own. It liberates you from thinking in stereotypes,
          from naively accepting statements that begin with 'Everyone knows…'. It liberates you
          from accepting easy answers to hard questions.”

          Dr. Gilliatt retired from JMU in 2008 to an even more active career in the church. She was Priest Associate at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Priest-in-Charge of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Blue Grass, VA, and before her retirement, she served as Chaplain to the Canterbury Club at JMU. An undergraduate award is to be established in her honor.