History prof gets teaching award

The School of Arts and Sciences' most prestigious teaching prize, the Ira Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching, will be awarded to History Professor Drew Faust this year, according to Janine Sternlieb, executive assistant to SAS Dean Rosemary Stevens. The award is presented annually to an SAS faculty member to honor excellence in teaching. Faust, author of the favorably reviewed Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians. She is also a 1982 recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Faust said the recognition thrilled her. "Teaching means very much to me," she said. "I'm very grateful to my students and people who wrote letters for me." The Abrams award "seeks to recognize teaching that is intellectually rigorous, exceptionally coherent and that leads to an informed understanding of a discipline," according to a statement from SAS. The winner is expected to embody high standards of integrity and fairness, to have strong commitment to learning and to be open to new ideas. Faust will receive a $6,000 grant, and her name will be inscribed on the award plaque situated in the dean's office. The History Department will also be awarded $4,000 devoted to improving teaching within the department. Faust said she does not yet have specific plans for her grant. Faust was chosen by a faculty committee comprised of Undergraduate Mathematics Chairperson Dennis DeTurck, Religious Studies Chairperson Stephen Dunning and Anthropology Professor Alan Mann. All three faculty members were past teaching award recipients. Last year's Ira Abrams recipients were English Professor Al Filreis and Psychology Professor Paul Rozin. Despite several other nominees, the committee chose Faust easily. "It couldn't have happened to a nicer person," DeTurck said. "It was one of the occasions where the decision was most self-evident." The three-member committee also awarded eight Dean's Awards for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students, Sternlieb said. This award attempts to recognize teaching that is intellectually rigorous, exceptionally coherent and that has considerable impact on students. Each of the eight graduate students will receive $500. History faculty members were thrilled to learn that Faust had won the award. "I'm absolutely delighted for it's a well deserved honor," History Department Chairperson Lynn Lees said. And History Professor Richard Beeman, who has known Faust since she was a graduate student at the University agreed. "I'm delighted," he said. "She perfectly embodies the bringing together of first-rate teaching and first-rate scholarship at a research university." The Christian and Mary Lindback and Provost's Awards for Distinguished Teaching have not been awarded yet, although recipients are expected to be chosen in the near future. An awards ceremony honoring all recipients of the various teaching awards will be held later this month.