Retiring
Please join us in wishing our recently retired faculty and staff a heartfelt congratulations!
Their work has made an everlasting impact on the University of Northern Iowa and we are so appreciative of their commitment and dedication to help our students grow. If you have a memory you'd like to share on this page, please let us know via our alumni updates page.
PITA AGBESE
Pita Agbese is retiring after 35 years in the Department of Political Science at UNI. He earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1984 and served in term positions in several universities (including UNI) before beginning his appointment here as an assistant professor in 1989. He earned tenure in 1992 and was promoted to professor in 1998. Prof. Agbese completed his undergraduate work in his native Nigeria, and before coming to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies he taught at the high school level, meaning that the 2023-24 academic year culminates a 50-year career of teaching.
Prof. Agbese built an international reputation as an expert on Nigerian politics, civil-military relations, and human rights, among other topics. His scholarship on civil-military relations and democratization was especially influential, investigating the ways that the military could be an obstacle to both democratization and development more broadly. His expertise in Nigerian politics extended into other realms as well, including human rights, ethnic conflict and environmental issues. He co-edited seven books and authored or co-authored two dozen peer-reviewed book chapters and twenty journal articles during his career. Throughout his career, he earned grants from the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He served the university and the discipline in a variety of ways, including through consultancies and lectures delivered around the world. As just one indicator of his scholarly expertise and reputation, in 2019 he was selected as an election monitor in the Nigerian presidential election.
For many years, Prof. Agbese taught the Non-Western Cultures: Africa course within the Liberal Arts Core. In doing so, he exposed thousands of students to African cultures, history and politics. In recent years, he continued this work by developing a new UNIFI course, “Colonial Encounters,” using the history and politics of colonialism to examine the development of African nations. Within political science, he taught courses in African politics, international law, international organizations, international political economy and U.S. foreign policy, among others. In recognition of his accomplishments in teaching, scholarship, and service, Prof. Agbese received the Regents’ Award for Faculty Excellence in 2004. The department wishes him a rewarding retirement. We will miss his collegiality, the colorful photos that adorned his office door (he is an avid photographer), and his joyous laugh punctuating our discussions in department meetings.
SHARON MORD
From William Henninger, head of the Department of Family, Aging & Counseling:
Sharon Mord has been a stellar teacher and is truly unique in her approach to ensuring students learn.
The textiles and apparel program (TAPP) is a skill-heavy major where students are not able to passively learn content. To really learn their craft, students must practice it with varied feedback from someone who has mastery of that skill. Prof. Mord has always been willing to give of her time to each student in this manner. Be it sewing, printing, pattern creation or any other skill, she meets students where they are and gives them the feedback necessary to better learn and master a skill.
TAPP is also one of the more equipment-heavy majors on campus. The program has sewing machines, irons, a giant fabric printer, a steam column to set fabric colors, a spectrometer, and various other expensive gadgets that are important to the discipline. Over multiple uses, these items break down or do not work as efficiently as they once did.
As any who owns a car or home knows, when something breaks someone has to fix it, be it the owner or a repair person. In TAPP, oftentimes that person has been Prof. Mord. I am not sure anyone ever asked her to learn how to fix these items, that is just who she is. She sees a problem and fixes it. Prof. Mord’s willingness to don her forehead lamp and dig into the bowels of a fabric printer has ensured that students’ projects get done on time and the departmental budget stays reasonably on track. Her value to the department in this area cannot be overstated.
Prof. Mord is one of the most “game” faculty I have ever met. A few years ago, one of our faculty members became exceptionally ill and was not able to teach the rest of the semester. With this illness came a need for class coverage on a course that required knowledge of several computer programs. There was not an adjunct pool at the last moment for that kind of knowledge. However, Prof. Mord was willing to learn the software and teach so students could finish the class.
She has always been willing to pitch in and is fearless in her willingness to undertake uncomfortable and unfamiliar tasks. It is one of the traits we will miss the most about her.