L&S Honors Program hands out first distinguished faculty awards

L&S Distinguished Honors Faculty awardees (left to right): Janet Batzli, Cyrena Pondrom, Richard Begam, Robert Booth Fowler and Jenny Saffran.

The L&S Honors Program recently held a reception to honor several faculty members as Distinguished Honors Faculty nominated by students and staff for their contribution to teaching Honors courses and supervising honors students in research and scholarship.

This is the first time the program has offered such awards and they hope to continue in the future.

Congratulations to the following faculty for being named Distinguished Honors Faculty in 2010:

• Janet Batzli, Associate Faculty Associate, Biocore Program
• Cyrena Pondrom, Professor of English
• Richard Begam, Professor of English
• Robert Booth Fowler, Professor Emeritus of Political Science
• Jenny Saffran, Professor of Psychology
• Kenneth West, Professor of Economics

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L&S scores a second grand slam at the Distinguished Alumni Awards

The College of Letters & Science scored a grand slam for a second year with a sweep of the 74th Distinguished Alumni Awards.

All outstanding award winners were L&S alumni with liberal arts degrees in English, Political Science, History and Economics.

The Distinguished Alumni Award is the the highest honor bestowed by the Wisconsin Alumni Association and celebrates outstanding UW-Madison graduates whose professional achievements, contributions to society, and support of the university exemplify the Wisconsin Idea.

The College continues to produce top alumni who are movers and shakers around the world as demonstrated by these awards.

Watch video of the ceremony on the Wisconsin Alumni Association's YouTube Channel.

The honorees are:

Robert Barnett and Rita Braver

• Robert Barnett '68, English  and Rita Braver '70, Political Science:  Barnett is a leading Washington, D.C. attorney who represents authors, television news anchors and producers, and government officials, and has worked on eight presidential campaigns. Braver is an award-winning senior correspondent for CBS News, where she reports on topics ranging from arts and entertainment to politics and foreign policy for Sunday Morning.  Both serve on the Board of Visitors of the Department of Political Science.

• Haynes Johnson MS'56, History; and Kathryn Oberly ’71, Political Science JD’73: Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, one of America’s leading voices on current politics, and the author of more than a dozen books of political analysis and modern history. Oberly is an associate judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals; her first official act was to swear in Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State.
  
  

• Arnold Weiss '51, Economics and Political Science LLB'53: German-Jewish immigrant and decorated World War II U.S. intelligence officer, Weiss discovered Adolf Hitler's last will, now in the National Archives. Having witnessed the war's destruction, Weiss dedicated his career as an investment-bank attorney to building, and his efforts brought social and economic progress to many developing nations.
  

For more information:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/17941

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L&S faculty take home eight Distinguished Teaching Awards

Each year, the Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards honors faculty for teaching excellence. This year, the committee selected ten outstanding faculty — eight who teach in the College of Letters & Science.

Congratulations to the winners on this outstanding achievement! 

To read more about the recipients and their work, see: http://www.news.wisc.edu/17913

• Emily Auerbach, professor of liberal studies and the arts and English, Van Hise Outreach Award
• Richard Avramenko, assistant professor of political science and integrated liberal studies, William H. Kiekhofer Award
• Donald Davis, associate professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia, Class of 1955 Distinguished Teaching Award
• Judith Leavitt, Ruth Bleier WARF Professor of medical history, history of science and women’s studies and UW Foundation Chair Rupple-Bascom Professor, Chancellor’s Award
• Mahesh Mahanthappa, assistant professor of chemistry, Emil H. Steiger Award
• Kirin Narayan, professor of anthropology, Chancellor’s Award
  
• Antonia Schleicher, professor of African languages and literature, Chancellor’s Award
• Tracy Schroepfer, assistant professor, School of Social Work, Chancellor’s Award

The recipients will receive their awards at a ceremony on Wednesday, April 21 at 3:30 p.m. at the Pyle Center.

News via University Communications

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Ngugi a guest on BBC World Service 'The Strand'

Mukoma Wa Ngugi, a dissertator in the English Department. Image: BBC

Mukoma Wa Ngugi, a dissertator in the English Department, was recently a featured guest on the BBC World Service - The Strand hosted by British writer Harriett Gilbert.

Ngugi spoke about his new debut novel Nairobi Heat — a detective novel in which an African-American policeman has to travel to Kenya to solve a crime and finds himself questioning his own roots and identity.

The novel is also set in Madison, Wisconsin.

The interview is archived on The Strand.

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Great column on Prof. Fred Cassidy, DARE

Doug Moe's recent column in the Wisconsin State Journal featured the legendary Professor Fred Cassidy, founder of the Dictionary of American Regional English.

Cassidy, who passed away in 2000, was a charismatic and energetic campus figure. 

Read Moe's column and reflections on Cassidy:  Why Dane County is Dane County.

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Severn wins 2010 Presidential Honorary Membership for work with DARE

Alyssa Severn, a  master's candidate in the English Department in the area of Applied English Linguistics, is the winner of a 2010 Presidential Honorary Membership in the American Dialect Society.

The announcement came from American Dialect Society President Connie Eble and recognizes Severn's excellent record as a graduate student and her work for the Dictionary of American Regional English.

Severn has been evaluating and selecting audio segments from DARE's voluminous collection, to be posted to the website "American Languages: Our Nation's Many Voices Online."

Severn was nominated by Luanne von Schneidemesser of DARE and Professor Eric Raimy of the English Department.

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Six honors undergrads receive Trewartha Senior Thesis grants

L&S Honors Program.

Six Letters & Science Honors students have received $2,000 Trewartha Senior Thesis grants. 

The grant enables students to undertake more demanding and extensive honors senior thesis research projects than might otherwise be possible:

• Emily Anstadt (Medical Microbiology and Immunology) to study if cardiac stem cells can regenerate damaged cardiac tissue.
• Daniel Lecaonet (Physics and Mathematics) to study the non-linear evolution of magneto-shear field instabilities
  
• Craig Marquardt (Psychology)  to study the influence of several human genetic polymorphisms on response to aversive events
  
• Cathrine Olien (Art History) to study ancient Cypriot limestone sculptures at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, FL
  
• Claire Rydell (Classics and History) to study classical self reliance as expressed in the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson
  
• Casmir Turnquist-Held (Biology and English) to study whether human neural progenitor cells can be transplanted and integrated into brain tissue

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