Eight members of the University of Delaware faculty, including five from the College of Arts and Sciences, have been
recognized for outstanding work in teaching and in undergraduate advising and mentoring.
The awards were announced at the May 1 meeting of the Faculty Senate.
They are
based primarily on nominations from current and past students, and
winners are selected by the Senate’s Committee on Student and Faculty
Honors.
Excellence in Teaching awardees each receive $5,000, have their
portraits hung in Morris Library for five years and have bricks
inscribed with their names installed in Mentors’ Circle between Hullihen
Hall and the Morris Library.
This year’s Excellence in Teaching Awards were presented to:
• Brian Ackerman, professor of psychological and brain sciences;
• Charles R. Bartlett, associate professor of entomology and wildlife ecology;
• Paul A. Laux, professor of finance and JPMorgan Chase Fellow in the Institute for Financial Services Analytics; and
• Bahira Sherif Trask, professor of human development and family studies.
Those honored with the University’s Excellence in Undergraduate
Advising and Mentoring Award receive $5,000 and also are honored with
inscribed bricks in Mentors’ Circle.
This year’s honorees, all in the College of Arts and Sciences, are:
• Robin Andreasen, associate professor of linguistics and cognitive science and of philosophy;
• Lisa Jaremka, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences;
• Phillip Mink, assistant professor of English, pre-law adviser and director of the Legal Professional Preparatory Program; and
• Patricia M. Walsh, associate professor of biological sciences
Award recipients shared their thoughts about teaching and advising with UDaily. Excerpts from their responses are printed below.
Excellence in Teaching
Brian Ackerman: “I try to make my classes a little edgy, and a
little wry, in an effort to challenge the sleep deprivation of all
involved. Frequently, I fail. My ultimate goal is to move the students
from tacit acceptance to systematic doubt of psychological and
neurological explanations of behavior. Many department faculty share
that goal. I hope that collectively we have some success.”
Charles R. Bartlett: I am very flattered to be a recipient of
the Excellence in Teaching Award. I enjoy teaching, I like to see
students succeed and I hope to encourage student success. Because
students learn in different ways (from lectures, from reading, from
practical application), I try to provide several resources for course
material. At the same time, many students respond to simple enthusiasm
for a subject, and enthusiasm may be one of the best gifts we can
provide to students. I am very grateful to be recognized by the students
and the college."
Paul A. Laux: “I am grateful to my students, my colleagues and
my University for this award. It makes me think of privilege,
obligation and challenge. My students and I are all privileged to learn
together in a modern university, where it is counted as our job to
develop our individual talents. This brings a life-long obligation to
justify our privilege by developing possibilities for others. The
challenge is then: How to do it? For me personally, that challenge is to
combine scholarly research and teaching -- the development and the
spread of knowledge naturally go together. I'll keep trying to meet my
challenge. I ask my students to keep trying to meet theirs.”
Bahira Sherif Trask: “Over my teaching career, I have taught a
wide variety of undergraduate courses in Human Development and Family
Studies. All of my courses center around contemporary social issues
facing individuals and families and how we can best find solutions to
the grand challenges of our times. I am a cultural anthropologist and I,
thus, concentrate on exposing my students to issues of diversity and
the relationship between economics, politics, social and historical
factors and the lives of individuals. As we delve deeper into the 21st
century, it is imperative that students understand the complexity of the
world we live in and how they can take responsibility and make a
difference.”