The Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) honored nine faculty and staff members for outstanding service at its spring convocation March 26.
Seven professors and two department staff members received six awards that recognized teaching, research and service within academic programs. CAS’s Executive Council, which represents faculty to the administration, solicited departmental nominations to identify awardees.
Andrew Sobanet, interim CAS dean, said the awardees demonstrated CAS’s emphasis on learning and research.
“We are thrilled to celebrate the work and achievements of our esteemed faculty and staff,” Sobanet said in a March 24 statement. “The honorees for this year’s convocation are proof that the College of Arts & Sciences’ dedication to teaching, discovery and service is thriving.”
Jo Ann Moran Cruz, a history professor and co-founder of the global medieval studies program; Christine So, an English professor; and Clay Shields, a computer science professor, won the dean’s awards for excellence in teaching, the convocation’s top honor.
Shields said he was honored by the recognition because he values teaching, noting his respect for his fellow Georgetown professors.
“It’s actually a huge honor to me to be recognized as one of the good teachers at Georgetown just because I have so much respect for all the other teachers,” Shields told The Hoya. “It’s nice to be included in that group.”
Shields was the first computer science professor to win the award out of 87 past recipients since 1996. The award aims to emphasize the university’s commitment to undergraduate education by honoring three professors each year.
So, who studies Asian American literature, said she looks to engage students in her courses to help them understand complex race relations.
“I ask a lot of questions,” So wrote to The Hoya. “I try to challenge my students to pinpoint what exactly is happening in a particular moment in a text and then to use those observations to understand how race operates more widely, often in surprising and contradictory ways.”
So, whose research focuses on how people of color grapple with identity and the law in the United States, said she was grateful for the award because Asian American literature has not always received adequate scholarly attention.
“I was gratified that my work in Asian American Studies, particularly in building a curriculum that didn’t exist before my arrival, was being recognized,” So wrote. “I appreciated very much that my work with students, which has been very meaningful to me, was also being acknowledged.”
The awardees also included Patrick O’Malley, an English professor who received the Tosetti faculty award, which honors research and mentoring in the humanities; Rebecca Ryan, a psychology professor who received the Stevens award for social science research; Alison Mackey, a linguistics professor who received the Condé Nast award recognizing teaching, service and leadership; and Micah Sherr, a computer science professor who received the Farr faculty excellence award, which honors scientific research and teaching.
Karen Lautman, English department administrator, and Leslie Byers, program coordinator in the women’s and gender studies program, received the distinguished service staff award.
O’Malley, who was the first-ever recipient of the Tosetti faculty award, said he was especially proud to be chosen because of the award’s emphasis on contributions to student engagement and development.
“This is a group of professors who are genuinely interested in their students as individuals and committed to creating pathways for their academic success,” O’Malley wrote to The Hoya. “So to be awarded a prize that specifically recognizes student mentoring as well as scholarship feels very meaningful.”
Sherr said he values teamwork and that collaboration is the most important part of his research.
“I was truly touched and truly honored, but the truth of the matter is that research isn’t done in a vacuum and I have an enormous amount of collaborators who are brilliant and whom I’ve learned a tremendous amount from,” Sherr told The Hoya.
“It really reflects a combined group effort and it was nice to be acknowledged for that,” Sherr added.
O’Malley said working with students inspires him to center passion in his mentorship and scholarship.
“The absolute best part of being a professor is working with students and seeing them get excited about their own projects,” O’Malley wrote. “I learn a tremendous amount from my students, which then also shapes and improves my own scholarship.”
Shields said teaching enables him to regularly consider how to best support his students.
“It is a continual improvement — a lot of it is experimenting to see what works, a lot of it is being willing to take feedback and putting ego aside,” Shields said. “So I’m trying to put the students first.”
