St. Edward’s University recently held its first ever Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Expression.

Hosted and organized by Vice President for Academic Affairs Mary K. Boyd, the function recognized and celebrated faculty members’ achievements outside of the classroom from 2013 to 2014. Among the recognized projects were published books, art exhibitions, journal articles and theatre productions.

Boyd said the event was originally the idea of faculty members’ desire to have a way of recognizing faculty’s projects, scholarship and creative works.

Amy Clements, an English writing professor, was one of the professors featured at the event. She was recognized for her book “The Art of Prestige: The Formative Years at Knopf, 1915-1929,” which was published last April.

Clements said she wrote the book because she worked in publishing.

“I was always interested in knowing their story,” Clements said.

The book took Clements nearly five years to complete, two of which were spent on research.

Lori Swick, a professor in the New College, was featured for her recently published book, “Dreaming – The Sacred Art.”

She explained that her book was a tool that “breached the gap between the Eastern traditions, in which dreaming is a really sacred endeavor, and the West, where it’s more of a science and the sacred aspects really hasn’t been delved into.”

Swick said the book’s purpose is to bring Eastern traditions and combine them with Western science in order to help today’s dreamers.

Although there were few students in attendance, professors were hopeful there would be more students at future events of this sort.

“I think it would be wonderful to have students see the work that faculty does, in addition to the teaching that they do,” Boyd said. “We have faculty who are very committed to teaching, and there are also extraordinary scholars. I think it would be wonderful for students to be able to see that.”