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

Category: College Updates
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100+ attend World Languages Day for the Community

On Saturday, March 13, the Language Institute welcomed an audience of 100+ to World Languages Day for the Community, a special program of the Year of the Humanities.

The event highlighted languages as a vital and essential focus of study in the humanities.

Inspired by the long-standing and popular World Languages Day for high school students, guests at World Languages Day for the Community were treated to performances and presentations by UW-Madison faculty, staff and students, with a focus on diverse languages and world regions. 

A welcome was provided by Sally Magnan, Language Institute director, and professor Magdalena Hauner, College of Letters & Science Associate Dean for the Arts and Humanities, followed by a performance by the Russian Folk Orchestra.  

Guests also attended presentations from faculty and staff from many UW-Madison departments on topics such as “French Around the World: Images and Insights,” “Indonesia Today: Facebook, Indonesian Idol and Television,” and “Read Ancient Greek in Thirty Minutes!”

The afternoon wrapped up with closing remarks from Robert Howell, Associate Dean, Division of International Studies, and a performance by Korean Drumming and Dance.

Category: Humanities & the Arts
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Thai Reader now online

Professor Robert Bickner (Thai) along with his colleagues have just published Thai Reader, an online text book consisting of 76 lessons based on authentic Thai texts.

This is the first new reading text for Thai in 40 years and is a departure from earlier materials in basing lessons on the sorts of reading materials that students of Thai encounter in daily life.

The text was written by a team of five experienced Thai teachers: Robert J. Bickner, Patcharin Peyasantiwong, Kannikar Elbow, Sidhorn Sangdhanoo, and Janpanit Surasin.  More about the contributors here.

The effort was funded by the U.S. Department of Education and is available free of charge for download from the web at http://readingthai.wisc.edu/

Category: Area Studies
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Gade publishes thorough introduction to the Qur'an

Professor Anna M. Gade (Languages and Cultures of Asia) recently published The Qur'an: An Introduction with Oneworld Publications.

From the publisher's website:

Explaining the language and the major themes of the Qur'an, its unique literary structure, and its alleged "inimitability", Gade highlights how it seamlessly weaves together law, narrative, description, and parable.

With extensive extracts, illustrations, and detailed insights into its textual history, The Qur'an: An Introduction helps those coming to the translated text for the first time and explains the unique issues that Qur'anic translation raises.

Exploring how a huge variety of topics are dealt with in the Qur'an, from gender and conflict to mysticism and even ecological crisis, both students and general readers will find this an invaluable primer.

Gade specializes in traditions of global Islam, the Qur'an, trends in religious revitalization in Muslim Southeast Asia as well as Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and theory and method in the academic study of religion and anthropological approaches to religion

Category: Area Studies
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Davis publishes book on Hindu law with Cambridge University Press

Professor Donald Davis (Languages & Cultures of Asia) recently published a book The Spirit of Hindu Law with Cambridge University Press.

From the publisher's website:

Law is too often perceived solely as state-based rules and institutions that provide a rational alternative to religious rites and ancestral customs. The Spirit of Hindu Law uses the Hindu legal tradition as a heuristic tool to question this view and reveal the close linkage between law and religion.

Emphasizing the household, the family, and everyday relationships as additional social locations of law, it contends that law itself can be understood as a theology of ordinary life.

An introduction to traditional Hindu law and jurisprudence, this book is structured around key legal concepts such as the sources of law and authority, the laws of persons and things, procedure, punishment and legal practice. It combines investigation of key themes from Sanskrit legal texts with discussion of Hindu theology and ethics, as well as thorough examination of broader comparative issues in law and religion.

Davis specializes in law and religion in medieval India, the history of religions in South Asia, Malayalam language and literature and Dharmasastra literature.

Category: Area Studies
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LISAR welcomes Gade as Faculty Fellow

The Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions (LISAR) is pleased to welcome Professor Anna M. Gade as Faculty Fellow. 

Gade is an Associate Professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia and the Religious Studies Program.  She is a scholar of global Islam specializing in Muslim Southeast Asia and is author of the new book, The Qur'an: An Introduction (Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld Publications). 

Gade holds a degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School (1999).

She has undertaken research in Cambodia and Indonesia and a current area of scholarly interest is comparative Muslim ecology.

Category: Area Studies
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