Erin York Cornwell has been awarded the 2019 Robert and Helen Appel Fellowship for Humanists and Social Scientists, and Ananda Cohen-Aponte and Khena Swallow have been awarded the 2019 Robert A. and Donna B. Paul Academic Advising Award.
They were among the Arts & Sciences faculty honored at a May 25 trustee-faculty dinner recognizing university-wide teaching and advising.
“We are fortunate to have such exemplary faculty in the college, who make a world of difference to our students and to the academy,” said Ray Jayawardhana, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “We are grateful to the Appels and the Pauls for caring so much about teaching and advising and we thank them for their generous support of our outstanding faculty.”
The Paul academic advising fellowship was established in 1992 to honor undergraduate advisers who make a difference in the lives of their students. Recipients receive a stipend and a TA package for their department. The Appel fellowships have recognized faculty excellence since 1995 and give recipients a semester's sabbatical leave at full salary to write, develop new courses, conduct research or otherwise enrich their teaching and scholarship.
York Cornwell, associate professor of sociology, researches how social contexts affect individuals’ behavior, and how this contributes to social inequality in health and legal outcomes, such as how courtroom interactions and legal procedures shape jury deliberations, attorneys’ behavior and decisions. She also looks at residential social contexts such as housing, residential neighborhoods and other spaces of daily life. York Cornwell served a term as director of undergraduate studies as assistant professor, during which the major grew from approximately 50 to 75 students.
Cohen-Aponte, associate professor of history of art, works on the visual culture of colonial Latin America, with special interest in issues of cross-cultural exchange, historicity, identity and anti-colonial movements. She participated in the First-Year Faculty Advising pilot program, meeting weekly with ten first-year students. She has pursued inclusion through her work in the classroom, university, community and online, and has been active in building pipelines to the study of art history for students of color and underrepresented groups.
Swallow, assistant professor of psychology, researches the relationship between the perceived structure of events and how people attend to and remember them; she uses behavioral, eye tracking, and MRI data in her work. Despite the size of her Introduction to Cognitive Science course, which averages more than 400 students from diverse colleges, she often asks each of the students to attend her office hours at least once during the first weeks of class. In her lab, she trains and works with each student personally, with an emphasis on a collaborative process.
Other College of Arts & Sciences honors:
- The Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award went to Michael Goldstein, associate professor of psychology; Kathleen Long, professor of Romance studies; Kelly Delp, senior lecturer in mathematics; and graduate students Jihyun Kim, music; Henry Kunerth, ecology & evolutionary biology; Samantha Carouso-Peck, psychology; and Maria Modanu, neurobiology & behavor.
- The Morgan Chia-Wen Sze and Bobbi Josephine Hernandez Distinguished Teaching Prize went to Tara Holm, professor of mathematics.
- The Advancement of College of Arts and Sciences Women Faculty award went to Mary Pat Brady, English.
- The Deanne Gebell Gitner ’66 and Family Annual Prize for Teaching Assistants went to graduate students Becky Lu, English; Tyler A. Anderson, physics; and Maru Sarazola, mathematics.
- The Dean’s Prize for Distinguished Teaching was awarded to graduate students Grace Catherine Greiner, English; Nina Obermeier, government; Roy Moyal, psychology; and Cody Duell, physics.
