The College of Arts and Sciences is soliciting nominations for the Faculty Awards for Academic Outreach, recognizing excellence in academic outreach during the past academic year by faculty in the departments and programs of the college. Faculty awards for academic outreach will be presented by the dean at the annual Faculty Awards Dinner.
Purpose
The Academic Outreach Awards recognize extraordinary contributions of faculty to the public that occur as an outgrowth of academic pursuits and are related to the university’s academic mission. The faculty awards are based on demonstrated outstanding contributions to the public stemming from their academic expertise.
Academic Outreach
Academic outreach is defined as integrated scholarship which engages the institution’s academic missions of research, creativity, teaching, and service with the community at large. It involves the university’s faculty and students employing their academic expertise to engage the community in reciprocal, collaborative relationships to improve the quality of life for citizens. In turn, the relationships with the community inform the scholarship and learning of faculty and students and supports university initiatives designed to enhance diversity and intercultural awareness.
Academic outreach cuts across the institutional mission; therefore, faculty may be nominated for excellence in academic outreach through outreach teaching (including courses with a service learning component), outreach research and creative activity, or outreach service.
Outreach teaching extends the university’s instructional capacity to provide learning opportunities to public audiences through workshops, public lectures, educational presentations to P-12 teachers and students, designing/developing educational exhibits, and other educational activities. Such teaching might employ innovative uses of information technologies to make university resources accessible to those at a distance through on-line courses or the design of educational websites.
Faculty may also perform outreach teaching by extending their classroom beyond the campus to engage their students in service learning. Through service learning, faculty design their course to enable their students to relate the academic content of their coursework to the real world by providing a needed service to the community as they apply and test their learning. Both service learning and student voluntary community service involve student engagement with the community; however, service learning differs from community service in that service learning experiences occur in the context of courses which are part of the approved curriculum and involve faculty and their students in a thoughtfully designed learning experience with defined learning and experiential goals as part of the course requirements.
Outreach research and creative activity involves extending faculty research and creative endeavors to serve the public at large. This goal may be accomplished through a variety of research activities: basic discovery research, applied or action research, original performances, and creative applied policy. Outreach research is often seen as an externally focused activity that brings together faculty and community collaborators to address real world problems and issues. Such collaboration, however, is only one of the ways in which outreach research can take place. Basic research and creative activity may also develop into outreach research, for their results may eventually be transmitted to an external audience or it may open a line of inquiry that benefits the public. Indeed, the best examples of outreach research and creative activities are those that engage faculty in advancing knowledge through the pursuit of their scholarly interests while simultaneously addressing community problems and issues, thereby benefiting the scholar, the discipline, the university, and society.
Outreach service entails employing faculty knowledge and professional expertise to serve society through application of expertise in direct service, consultation with public, private, and civic institutions of all kinds, and other activities which apply faculty knowledge to the benefit of the community. Through outreach service, the intellectual resources of the university’s faculty are applied to helping seek solutions to community problems and issues. As faculty knowledge provides insights which inform citizens of choices, provide needed services, and inform public decisions, faculty enhance the quality of life of the citizens in the communities served by the university.
Outreach service does not include:
- institutional service (e.g., service on university committees),
- professional service (e.g., service to various professional and learned societies), or
- community service (e.g., charitable service outside the faculty member’s academic expertise).
Rather, outreach service is defined more specifically as extending to the community faculty’s disciplinary expertise acquired through research, scholarship, and creative activity.
Eligibility
All full-time tenured and tenure track faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences are eligible forthis award. Adjunct faculty, instructors, and graduate teaching assistants are ineligible. Previous award recipients are ineligible for five years following their receipt of the award. The awards are intended to honor faculty who have exceeded normal expectations in their academic outreach activities and whose work has addressed a real community need through academic outreach.
Nominations of Faculty
Nominations will be solicited from department heads or directors. Please complete this nomination form. The letter of nomination should be limited to two typed, double-spaced pages. The letter should indicate whether the nominee is being nominated for outreach teaching, outreach research and creative activity or outreach service and should address the nature and quality of the academic outreach performed by the nominated individual and why it represents an extraordinary accomplishment that exceeds normal expectations for faculty. A copy of the faculty member’s current curriculum vitae should be attached to the letter of nomination. Nominators are asked not to include additional materials because they will NOT be considered.
Nominations should be submitted to Dean Theresa Lee no later than December 12 at 5:00 p.m.
Recipients
| Year | Recipient | Department |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Research: Orou Gaoue Research: Erin Hardin Service: Nina Fefferman Teaching: Lawrence Lee Teaching: Illiana Rocha |
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Psychology Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Physics & Astronomy English |
| 2021 | Research: Monica Papes Service: Helene Sinnreich Teaching: Millie Gimmel |
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Religious Studies MFLL |
| 2020 | Research: Kimberly S. Sheldon Research: Liem T. Tran Service: Paul Armsworth Service: Nicole Eggers Teaching: Jessica M. Budke Teaching: Katy L. Chiles |
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Geography Ecology & Evolutionary Biology History Ecology & Evolutionary Biology English |
| 2019 | Teaching: Charlie Kwit Service: Patrick Grzanka Research: Annette Engel |
History Psychology EPS |
| 2018 | Barry D. Bruce Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius Erin Darby |
BCMB History Religious Studies |
| 2017 | Karen Lloyd Julie Reed Henri Grissino-Mayer |
Microbiology History Geography |
| 2016 | Daniel Feller | History |
| 2015 | Joe Miles | Psychology |
| 2014 | B. Eugene Wofford Lawrence Elledge Gilya Schmidt |
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Psychology Religious Studies |
| 2013 | Nikolay Brodskiy Jon Levin |
Math Physics and Astronomy |
| 2012 | Kristina Gordon Marilyn Kallet Christina Shepardson |
Psychology English Religious Studies |
| 2011 | Marcia Goldenstein Mike McKinney |
Art Earth & Planetary Sciences |
| 2010 | Stuart Elston Larry Taylor |
Physics & Astronomy Earth & Planetary Sciences |
| 2009 | Jeffrey Kovac Michael Lofaro |
Chemistry English |
| 2008 | Daniel Feller Sally Horn Norman Magden Daniel Roberts |
History Geography Art Biochemistry & Cellular Molecular Biology |
| 2007 | Marvelene Moore Suzanne Lenhart |
Music Mathematics |
| 2006 | Don Hough Bob Bast |
Music History |
| 2005 | Stefanie Ohnesorg Susan Riechert |
Modern Foreign Languages & Literatures Ecology & Evolutionary Biology |
| 2004 | Christopher P. Craig William Wade III |
Classics Mathematics |
| 2003 | Robert Cunningham Blake Robison |
Political Science Theatre |
| 2002 | Bruce Wheeler Rosalind Gwynne |
History Religious Studies |
| 2001 | Lorri Glover Jan Simek |
History Anthropology |
| 2000 | Jesse Poore Arthur Echternacht |
Computer Science Ecology & Evolutionary Biology |
| 1999 | Gordon Burghardt Gary McCracken |
Psychology Ecology & Evolutionary Biology |
| 1998 | Charles Faulkner Anne McIntyre |
Anthropology Psychology |
| 1997 | Thomas Hood Beth Mullin |
Sociology Botany |
| 1996 | Susan Martin James Black |
Classics Sociology |
| 1995 | John Nolt Jeffrey Mellor |
Philosophy Modern Foreign Languages & Literatures |
| 1994 | Marilyn Kallet Susan Riechert |
English Ecology & Evolutionary Biology |
| 1993 | William Lyons Sheldon Cohen |
Art Earth & Planetary Sciences |
| 1992 | Sidney Jumper Kathleen Lawler |
Geography Psychology |
| 1991 | Don Byerly Gerald Vaughan |
Geology Ecology & Evolutionary Biology |
| 1990 | Robert Gorman Edward Clebsch |
Political Science Botany |