By Grace Weintrob and Bianca de Toledo Piza
The College of Liberal Arts is pleased to announce the 2022 college award winners where staff and faculty are recognized for their contributions to their units, the college, the university, and to their colleagues and their profession/discipline.
See University-wide Celebrate! Colorado State Awards, including Office of the Provost awards.
Carl A. Bimson Humanities Seminar
A bequest from Mr. Bimson’s estate provides funding for an ongoing series of humanities seminars. Mr. Bimson envisioned seminars that would bring primary and secondary teachers to CSU’s campus to engage in advanced study of various topics of humanistic learning, facilitated by CLA faculty. In the liberal arts tradition, the College has extended the meaning of “humanities” to encompass the performing and creative arts, humanities, and social science disciplines.
Thomas R. Dunn
Department of Communication Studies
The HB19-1192 law was passed in 2019, which expanded curriculum in public schools to include the history, culture, and social contributions of American Indians, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and the LBGTQ community. Dunn’s seminar will provide K-12 teachers the knowledge, space, and resources to help implement these changes in a thoughtful and effective manner.
Ann Gill Faculty Development Award
The Ann Gill Faculty Development Award is funded by generous donors to the College of Liberal Arts through the College’s Great Conversations program. This supports annual awards for outstanding research and creative activity by tenured and tenure-track faculty in the College.
Sanam Emami
Department of Art and Art History
Sanam Emami received this award for her project “Connecting Practice to Place,” which aims to find local clay deposits, gather samples, and test materials to use this clay to create a new series of work. Emami hopes to incorporate this research into her teaching and help the environment by not contributing to the transportation and mining of clay.
Jaime Jacobsen
Department of Journalism and Media Communication
Jaime Jacobsen received this award for her co-created, interactive online documentary “La Venezuela de mi Corazón (The Venezuela of My Heart).” The ultimate goal of the project is to encourage college students and host communities to develop new perspectives surrounding immigration issues and to connect them with newcomers in the Rocky Mountain West, which will in turn shape historical perspective for generations to come.
Anthony Roberts
Department of Sociology
Anthony Roberts received this award for his project “Economic Inequality in the Post-COVID Era: The Impact of Covid-19 on Contemporary & Future Income Inequality in the United States,” which aims to use supervised machine learning to create an explanatory and predictive model of income inequality to understand how employment loss, working hour reductions, and wage changes have created economic inequality.
Marcela Velasco
Department of Political Science
Marcela Velasco received this award for her project “Local Resilience and Environmental Peacebuilding,” which examines adaptation to climate change and conflict resolution in Colombia’s Pacific coast to better understand the tension between ethnic authorities and local governance.
Ann Gill Faculty Development Award for Collaborative Projects
The Ann Gill Faculty Development Award for Collaborative Projects provides funding for faculty members who are working collaboratively. This award facilitates ongoing research and creative activity to faculty working on team-teaching, research, and interdisciplinary work.
Joshua Sbicca and Carrie Chennault
Sociology and Anthropology & Geography
Joshua Sbicca and Carrie Chennault’s project, “Mapping Prison Agriculture in the United States,” aims to map the nationwide trends in present day prison agriculture through a historical, political, and geographic lens to understand how prisons’ disciplinary conditions contribute to racial capitalism.
Martin Carcasson, Michael Humphrey, Sam Houghteling, and Andrea Rice Purdy
Communication Studies, Journalism & Media Communication, Political Science, and Languages, Literatures, & Cultures
Their project, “Developing the Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Collaborative,” involves multiple different organizations in Colorado, all with the goal of engaging previously marginalized communities in the news world. Since there are “no significant sources of local media that serve those communities,” the project aims to engage the communities as well as create end products that are accessible for them.
Lindsey Schneider and Ricki Ginsberg
Ethnic Studies and English
The project they are proposing for the Ann Gill Faculty Development Award will add to a small but growing body of work that addresses successful strategies for land grant universities to develop and maintain university relationship with tribal nations and explore how they feed programs to support Native American student achievement.
Outstanding Engaged Scholarship Award
The Outstanding Engaged Scholarship Award is presented in recognition of a member of the College who has shown an exemplary commitment to engaged scholarship.
Katherine Knobloch
Department of Communication Studies
Katherine Knobloch’s dedication to the Center for Public Deliberation has opened the door for community connections and conversations that foster civic engagement. Her work “epitomizes the ways that research, teaching, service, and engagement can be integrated” for members of the public to connect in meaningful ways. Knobloch’s dedication to host conversations and collect information about the community is what makes her this year’s award recipient.
Distinction in Curricular Innovation Award
This award is presented in recognition of a member of the College faculty who has made outstanding contributions to curricular innovation in the College. Curricular innovation may include, but is not limited to, such areas as program development, instructional methods, service learning, and technology integration.
Elinor Light
Department of Communication Studies
Elinor Light received this award for her work in developing a digital aesthetic pedagogy for teaching in online, digital spaces. Light has played a direct role in the development of multiple communication studies online courses, as well as the online bachelor’s program in communication studies. Her dedication to improving, implementing, and reinventing online education is what makes her this year’s award winner.
Excellence in Teaching Awards
The CLA Excellence in Teaching Awards recognize one outstanding teacher in each of the following four categories: Graduate Teaching Assistant, Non-Tenure Track Faculty, Tenure-Track Faculty, and Associate Professor. Full professors, who are eligible for the John N. Stern Distinguished Professor Award, are not eligible for this award.
Madeleine Cort, Graduate Teaching Assistant Category
School of Music, Theatre, and Dance
As a student nominator reports, Madeleine Cort holds students to “a standard that would push us to learn, but still remained flexible to understanding what the class needed to succeed.” Cort’s ability to provide students with a learning environment that encourages progress over performance is what earned her this year’s award.
Jeff LaQuatra, Contract, Continuing, and Adjunct Faculty Category
School of Music, Theatre, and Dance
Jeff LaQuatra received this award for his ability to push students to their limits and equip them with the skills to tell stories through their music. He makes sure to teach students “how to be expressive musicians, not just guitar players” by taking the time to understand the individual needs of each student.
Lindsey Schneider, Tenure Track Category
Department of Ethnic Studies
As her nomination reads, Schneider “encourages us to examine and challenge deep-seated, hegemonic beliefs and ideologies within ourselves, nation, and globe that contribute to and perpetuate the disproportionate environmental harms and burdens.” Her ability to challenge students’ beliefs, make them feel comfortable with their intellect, and truly be there for them are just a few of the reasons why Schneider’s students think so highly of her and why she received this award.
Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager, Associate Professor Category
Department of Communication Studies
Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager’s nomination describes how “she genuinely cares about the success and growth of each student and will do anything to help them succeed.” Her openness with her students encourages participation and vulnerability in the classroom, which we celebrate with the presenting of this teaching award.
Outstanding Service Award
This award recognizes a member of the College who has made outstanding service contributions to a CLA department, the College, University, profession, and/or community.
Elizabeth Williams
Department of Communication Studies
Elizabeth Williams received this award for her “significant contributions to the university, college, department, discipline, and larger community” as the first Director of Undergraduate Studies. Williams’ organizational and health communication expertise, together with her involvement in important discussions in the College of Liberal Arts and the disciplinary roles she plays, contributed to creating a vision of equal opportunities and union for students.
Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring Award
The College of Liberal Arts Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring Award honors faculty who contribute to an engaging, supportive, inclusive academic environment through their mentorship of students.
Meara Faw
Department of Communication Studies
With her efforts in mentoring undergraduate students through her unique program, Research in Interpersonal Communication Collaborative (RICC), Meara Faw’s guidance to students pursuing graduate school and holistic support to makes her a worthy recipient of this award. As noted by her nominator, she “truly embodies excellence in undergraduate mentorship.”
Excellence in Graduate Mentoring Award
The College of Liberal Arts Excellence in Graduate Mentoring Award honors faculty who contribute to an engaging, supportive, inclusive academic environment through their mentorship of students.
Anita Alves Pena
Department of Economics
Anita Alves Pena’s mentorship of graduate students in the economics department and her commitment to students from under-represented groups is why she is the recipient of this award. To highlight her dedication to the Ph.D. program, her nomination mentions how “she keeps dedicating her time to our students despite being a mother of four children; she is strongly committed to their success by keeping them to high academic standards while at the same offering support, guidance, and encouragement.”
Administrative Professional Award
The College of Liberal Arts Administrative Professional Award recognizes meritorious and outstanding achievement in job skills and/or service to the college by Administrative Professional employees. This may include excellent job skills and workplace achievements above what is normally expected.
Steven Workman
School of Music, Theatre, and Dance
Steven Workman is more than just an instructor; he is the production man behind the School of Music, Theatre and Dance’s entire theatrical, operatic and dance performances every year. Workman’s commitment to putting staff and students first exemplifies his dedication to improving the department, learning experience, and work environment for all. As his nomination reads, “CSU Theatre would not run without Steven Workman!”
State Classified Award
The College of Liberal Arts State Classified Award recognizes meritorious and outstanding achievement in job skills and/or service to the College by State Classified employees. This may include excellent job skills and workplace achievements that are above what is normally expected.
Eliza Wagner-Kinyon
Department of Communication Studies
Eliza Wagner-Kinyon has been selected as this year’s award recipient, recognized by a fellow faculty member as “the glue that makes everything stick together.” She goes above and beyond in her work of overseeing the department’s budget, managing human resource issues, and collaborating with campus and external partners. According to her immediate supervisor, Wagner-Kinyon completes her work “so well, thoughtfully, and with deep commitment to good work and to our community.”
