Dean’s Award for Innovation in Teaching

This award, which recognizes exceptional creativity and innovation in instruction, goes to Marie Gottschalk, professor of political science, for her seminar Inside/Out: The Politics of Crime and Punishment, which enrolls Penn students as well as a group of prison inmates at the Philadelphia Industrial Correction Center.  The class has a deep impact on the participants; one Penn student writes that “the message was always clear: the laws and policies that we learned about were not just words on a page—they had a real impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, ten of whom were sitting next to us in class every week.”

Dean’s Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research

This award recognizes faculty members who have excelled in nurturing students’ desires and abilities to conduct meaningful research. This year SAS honors Mark Devlin, Reese W. Flower Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, who has provided research experiences for some 45 undergraduates. A colleague commends Dr. Devlin’s “active learning” approach, the way he “shows the undergraduates his own passion and enthusiasm for the scientific undertaking,” and his ability to convey “the clear message that the scientific challenges are significant and important, but that they can be successfully overcome.”

Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Award for Distinguished Teaching by an Assistant Professor

This award recognizes a member of the junior faculty who demonstrates unusual promise as an educator. This year’s recipient is Dr. Salamishah Tillet, assistant professor of English. Her undergraduate and graduate courses on twentieth-century African American literature and visual and performance arts earn rave reviews from students, one of whom writes that Tillet “walks beside her students in a way that demonstrates her confidence and sincere interest in the unique experiences each individual brings to the classroom.”

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Affiliated Faculty

This award recognizes the contributions to undergraduate education made by the School’s non-standing faculty. This year’s recipient is Christina Frei, senior lecturer in foreign language in the department of German and academic director of the Penn Language Center. Colleagues praise “the intensity of her presence,” “the strategic appeal of her pedagogy,” her commitment to learner-centered teaching, and her innovative use of technology in the classroom.

LPS Distinguished Teaching Award

This award honors outstanding teaching and advising in the College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS). This year’s recipient of the award for standing faculty is Rita Barnard, professor of English, who earns praise for her teaching and mentorship in LPS courses.  A student observes, “In a class populated with students functioning at widely disparate levels of expertise, she strived to optimize the input of everyone in the class.” 

The non-standing faculty recipient is Eileen Doherty-Sil, associate director of the political science undergraduate program, who has taught introductory LPS courses and seminars in the Master of Liberal Arts program. One of her students notes, “What was her unique mark as a professor was that she enabled us to become better thinkers—we were not to simply nod … but instead be firm evaluators and objective analysts.”