Recognizing excellence in teaching and service

At the annual faculty welcome reception held in Holmes Lounge, Dean Schaal welcomed new faculty to Arts & Sciences and presented four awards: the Distinguished Teaching Award, the Faculty Leadership Award, the David Hadas Teaching Award, and the inaugural Dean's Faculty Award. Schaal established both the Distinguished Teaching Award and the Faculty Leadership Award in 2014 as a way to recognize exceptional commitment to Arts & Sciences and its students. The David Hadas Teaching Award recognizes excellence in teaching first-year undergraduates, and the Dean's Faculty Award honors a member of the broader Washington University faculty who has made exceptional contributions to Arts & Sciences. Congratulations to all 2019 awardees! 

The David Hadas Teaching Award

Elizabeth Borgwardt, Associate Professor of History

Elizabeth Borgwardt brings a wealth of expertise to the twelve first-year students in her coveted seminar "The Nuremberg Trials and International Justice." A historian specializing in the history of human rights ideas and institutions, Borgwardt holds a PhD from Stanford, a JD from Harvard Law School, and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University. Her current book project on crimes against humanity in history, law, and politics is under contract with Alfred A. Knopf. She joined the Washington University faculty in 2006 and holds a courtesy appointment with the School of Law.

In Borgwardt's  accepting remarks for the David Hadas Teaching Award, she praised the "sheer intellectual passion" of first-year students at Washington University. The admiration is mutual. As one student writes: "Professor Borgwardt is one of those professors who gives hope to the world of academia by ensuring future academics are mentored well. Her lectures and discussions are fascinating, and she is attentive to students and their interests outside of class. Her office hours are frequent. Her insight is incredibly valuable, and she is genuinely kind.”

 

The Arts & Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award

Lerone Martin, Associate Professor of Religion and Politics

Lerone Martin joined Washington University in 2013 as a postdoctoral research associate in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. He was promoted to assistant professor in 2017 and associate in 2018. Over the past several semesters, Martin has taught courses on such fascinating topics as "The FBI and Religion" and "Jesus, Jazz, and Gin: The 1920s and the History of Our Current Times." In addition, he teaches fieldwork methods in African and African-American Studies and works with students on independent capstone projects. Earlier this year, the undergraduate ArtSci Council awarded him the ArtSci Excellence in Teaching Award in Humanities.

Martin's teaching is grounded in his own acclaimed scholarship. He has been awarded a number of nationally recognized fellowships, and his award-winning book Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Making of Modern African American Religion was published in 2014. Upon receiving the Distinguished Teaching Award, Martin thanked his "first teachers" – his parents and four older siblings, one of whom was in attendance. He also recognized his colleagues, whom he dubbed "partners in crime and pedagogy." Martin will become director of American Culture Studies in July 2020.

 

Stan Braude, Professor of Practice in Biology

Stan Braude began his teaching career at Washington University in 1992 as a lecturer in University College. Five years later, he began teaching full-time in the Department of Biology. He has received multiple national awards for his work, including the 2004 College Biology Teacher of the Year award from the National Association of Biology Teachers and the 2011 Distinguished Teacher Award from the Animal Behavior Society. Outside of teaching, Braude's primary research focuses on the evolution of social behavior and senescence in naked mole-rats in east Africa. He earned his doctorate from the University of Michigan. 

Several students nominated Braude for this distinction. As one letter puts it: "When I think of a distinguished teacher, I think of someone who is engaging, supportive, approachable, and intelligent. Dr. Braude encompasses all of the characteristics. He is endlessly curious and always willing to discuss course material or interesting scientific articles, and is the type of professor that you can spend hours with in his office discussing course material and its applications to the real world. While there are many fabulous professors at Washington University, Dr. Braude is one of the best educators I have studied under and I consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to take his courses and establish a relationship with him over the past few years."

Read more in "Stan Braude: Stories from the classroom." 

 

The Arts & Sciences Faculty Leadership Award

Steve Fazzari, Bert A. and Jeanette L. Lynch Distinguished Professor of Economics

Over the course of nearly four decades on the faculty at Washington University, Steve Fazzari has taken on "a dizzying number" of leadership roles in Arts & Sciences. He has been on the Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee, the Advisory Committee on Tenure, Promotion, and Personnel, and the Arts & Sciences Academic Planning Committee, just to name a few. He also chaired the Department of Economics from 1999-2005 and has served as associate director of the Murray Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy since 2008. Most recently, Fazzari took on the daunting task of relaunching the Department of Sociology and serving as one of its first chairs. As his colleagues attest, Fazzari worked tirelessly in his efforts to recruit a stellar first cohort of sociology faculty and shape the direction of the new department. He has done all of this while remaining committed to his students and nationally recognized research program. 

Numerous faculty members submitted enthusiastic and heartfelt statements of support for Fazzari's award. David Cunningham, professor and associate chair of sociology, wrote: "Speaking as the faculty member charged with filling Steve’s enormous shoes as the department’s next chair, I am both daunted by the dexterity with which he has managed the department and awed by the decency that characterizes every aspect of his work. Fortunately, I also have been – and will continue to be – buoyed by the mentorship he has unfailingly offered."

 

Dean's Faculty Award

Adrienne Davis, Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Institutional Diversity, William M. Van Cleve Professor in the Law School

Adrienne Davis earned her JD from Yale Law School, where she also received her BA in Afro-American studies. Her research focuses on private law areas such as contracts and trusts and estates, as well as legal theory and history, including slavery, feminist legal theory, and theories of justice and reparations. She has courtesy appointments in Arts & Sciences in African & African-American Studies, History, Sociology, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.  

Since joining Washington University in 2008, Davis has made tremendous contributions to the university's academic diversity and inclusion goals. From 2015-17, she chaired the university’s Diversity Commission, which was charged with designing a university-wide plan for diversity. She also works with departments in their efforts to recruit and retain faculty members from all backgrounds. Her office offers annual search workshop training for chairs and real-time recruitment support, and she works closely with many stakeholders at the university on policies, initiatives, and programs to support students and staff. She is the inaugural director of the university's Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity. While accepting her award, Davis praised her colleagues in Arts & Sciences for being both "brilliant and collegial," and recognized Dean Schaal in particular as a "thought partner and friend."