Steven J. Fluharty, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and Paul Sniegowski, dean of the College, announce the following recipients of the School’s 2018 teaching awards, to be presented on Thursday, April 26 at an awards reception that is open to the University community. The reception will take place 4-6 p.m. in 200 College Hall. 

Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching

This year’s recipients of SAS’s highest teaching honor are Peter Holquist, Ronald S. Lauder Endowed Term Associate Professor of History, and Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, associate professor of history of art. Created in 1983, the Ira H. Abrams Award recognizes teaching that is intellectually challenging and exceptionally coherent and honors faculty who embody high standards of integrity and fairness, have a strong commitment to learning and are open to new ideas.

Dr. Holquist has earned a reputation as a vibrant lecturer who captivates students in his classes. In describing the combination of rigor and enthusiasm that he inspires, a student explains that “signing up for Professor Holquist’s courses means committing to a semester of reading more and reading more carefully than in any other class, to a semester of being challenged to be better than one might think they’re capable of.” A colleague notes, “Dr. Holquist is simply the model of a devoted teacher—lively and engaging, demanding and inspiring and always available to his students.”

Dr. Shaw’s approach to teaching is open, experimentally minded, and reflects “a fabulous sense of the fun of learning about art,” according to her colleagues. For many years she has pushed her departmental teaching culture into new areas of global and object-oriented learning, earning “unparalleled devotion” from her students, including one who reflected after travelling to Cuba as part of Dr. Shaw’s Art History 384 course, “The very foundation of her teaching is challenging the preexisting conceptions of her students.”

Dennis M. DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching

This award, newly named after former College Dean and Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor Dennis DeTurck, recognizes exceptional creativity and innovation in instruction. The 2018 recipient is Philip Nelson, professor of physics and astronomy. Motivated by a deep commitment to innovative teaching, Dr.Nelson puts extensive work into making challenging subjects such as biophysics accessible to the widest possible group of students while still retaining depth and mathematical rigor.

One student sums up the power of Dr. Nelson’s approach: “His greatest ability is demonstrating the relationship of concepts to context in an engaging and curiosity-inspiring manner, melding what to some students is relatively bland material into intriguing real-life stories.”

Dean’s Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research

This award recognizes faculty members who have excelled in nurturing undergraduate students’ desires and abilities to conduct meaningful research. This year, SAS honors Meredith Tamminga, assistant professor of linguistics, who is known as a dedicated and supportive mentor who provides research experiences that start with basic methodologies and allow students to grow into their full academic potential by taking on responsibility in independent research projects. Her close guidance and collegial approach prompted one student to say, “It often felt like we were two colleagues working together.”

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by an Assistant Professor

This award recognizes a member of the junior faculty who demonstrates unusual promise as an educator. The 2018 recipient is Daniel Singer, assistant professor of philosophy.  Dr. Singer is highly lauded by faculty and students for his talents as a dynamic lecturer, his ability to make difficult material accessible and stimulate interest in philosophy, and his accessibility and commitment to students.

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Affiliated Faculty

Meghan Crnic, lecturer and undergraduate research coordinator in the department of history and sociology of science, and Jami Fisher, lecturer in the department of linguistics, are the recipients of this award, which recognizes the contributions to undergraduate education made by the School’s non-standing faculty.

Dr. Crnic’s students rave about her ability to connect with them, “including shy students and those less confident about their projects,” says one, while another explains that she is “brilliant, engaging, a fantastic seminar leader, respects all of her students and overall creates an atmosphere where everyone loves and wants to learn together as a group.”

Dr. Fisher is, in the words of a colleague, “the creative mind behind a flourishing and well-respected American Sign Language program.” She works tirelessly to provide a stimulating and cohesive experience for Penn students “to learn about and engage with another world [deaf culture] that is hiding in plain sight.”

College of Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Undergraduate and Post-Baccalaureate Programs

Julie Nishimura-Jensen, lecturer and director of the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies, is the recipient of this award, which recognizes outstanding teaching in LPS’s undergraduate and post-baccalaureate programs. According to the classical studies undergraduate chair James Ker, “Julie’s post-baccalaureate seminars in Latin and Greek have been transformative for entire cohorts of students due to her well-honed pedagogy…she is a master language teacher.”

College of Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Professional Graduate Programs

The recipient of the LPS Award for Distinguished Teaching in Professional Graduate Programs, is Charline S. Russo, a lecturer in the organizational dynamics program. Students particularly praise Dr. Russo’s ability to engage the learner in a way that helps them to connect the theory she is teaching to how it could be useful in their lives. One writes, “It seems as though Charline has a story, an article or a friend that she can connect to any topic you might throw her way. Her ability to match the right content to the right people is incredible.”

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students

This award recognizes graduate students for teaching that is intellectually rigorous and has a considerable impact on undergraduate students. This year’s awardees are:

Chelsea Chamberlain, History

Tomas Elliott, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory

Danielle Hanley, Political Science

Wesley Hanson, Classical Studies

Jeffrey Katzin, History of Art

Clare Mullaney, English

Stan Najmr, Chemistry

Sudev Sheth, South Asia Regional Studies and History

Zachary Smith, Political Science

Margaret Strair, German