Posted on March 8, 2004 at 3:45 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has appointed William C. Carter, Ph.D., as Distinguished Professor in French. The appointment was approved by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees during its February 6 meeting.

The rank of Distinguished Professor is a campus-wide appointment that recognizes the international accomplishments of UAB faculty members. Carter, who teaches in the UAB Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, is a renowned scholar of the early 20th century French writer Marcel Proust.

In 2000, Carter garnered international attention when he published the critically acclaimed biography Marcel Proust: A Life, which received favorable reviews from the Sunday Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and the Sunday Times of London. He has also played a crucial role in developing the world’s third largest Proust collection, which is housed in the UAB Mervyn Sterne Library.

In 1989, the French government honored his contributions to French culture by awarding him the Palmes Académiques. He was project director and co-producer of the 1992 award-winning documentary “Marcel Proust: A Writer’s Life,” which aired on PBS in 1993 and in Europe and Asia.

Carter, a native of Jesup, Georgia, has been a member of the UAB faculty since 1975. He was chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages 1979-1990.