Teaching Assistant: Christopher Hauser, Susan Kenney, Abigail Reardon, Andrea Gaytán-Cuesta
Professor Douglas Blair, Economics and Political Science
Professor Doug Blair has long been recognized as an outstanding teacher. Most recently, he has developed a remarkable new Signature Course on Inequality. Combining economics and political science to examine the growing income inequality in the United States and the world, his course provides a broad range of students with a nuanced understanding of a signature challenge of our era. It is characteristic of Professor Blair that he would not simply rest on teaching the bread and butter economics courses, but would also spend well over a year developing this new course. As he has done throughout his career, he continued to fine-tune this course up until the moment class began each week during this past fall and spring semesters. And, many students’ comments are echoed in this simple one: “Very nice man that wants the best for his students.”
Today we want to particularly recognize a unique role Professor Blair plays in undergraduate education in the economics department: training graduate students to be teachers. Not only does Professor Blair teach a full load of courses with an average enrollment of nearly 200 students each, he spends many a morning hour in the long conversations about teaching that he requires of the department’s graduate students. Under Professor Blair’s tutelage, these graduate students learn how to explain fundamental economic concepts like supply and demand to a novice audience. The department chair writes: “There is literally no contest—no one in the department spends more time teaching the ‘art of teaching’ to graduate students than Professor Blair does. He is exceptional. Unique.”
We are delighted to recognize Professor Doug Blair’s distinguished contribution to undergraduate education through outstanding mentoring of graduate students in the art of teaching in one of the largest undergraduate majors in Arts and Sciences.
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ProfessorMary S. Gossy, Women’s and Gender Studies
Professor Mary S. Gossy has a long and consistent record of remarkable classroom teaching across three programs: Spanish literature, Comparative Literature, and Women’s and Gender Studies. Joining Rutgers in 1988, she has taught literally thousands of students in her regularly oversubscribed undergraduate courses, opening their minds to new ways of thinking and to new possibilities. Student and faculty evaluations of Professor Gossy’s teaching repeatedly reinforce a common message: she is a fantastic teacher. Colleagues express something close to awe at her ease and ability in the classroom. Time after time colleagues remark on her superb knowledge, skills, wit, and excellent rapport with students. Over and over, students describe her as the best professor they have ever had: amazing, brilliant, and always eager to help. One remarked: “I love this professor! I don't even like poetry but I learned sooo much in this class. She really makes you think.”
With great appreciation, we recognize Professor Mary S. Gossy’s capacity to help students of all stages and abilities to find and fan their own intellectual passions, and then to use that energy to build the kind of life they desire, with the Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contribution to Undergraduate Education.
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ProfessorSaurabh Jha, Physics and Astronomy
ProfessorMary Shaw, French
It is testament to Professor Mary Shaw’s devotion to undergraduate education that she is completing her fifteenth year as Undergraduate Director, during which time she has demonstrated unflagging energy, passion, and street-smarts. And, throughout this era she has been well-known as a committed and caring classroom teacher.
Over the last year and a half, Professor Shaw took on a most remarkable large-scale multi-disciplinary project that demonstrates just what being a student at a research institution as large and complex as Rutgers can mean for undergraduates. Professor Shaw constructed a new course, “Poetries - Politics: A Multilingual Poetry Exhibition Project,” in which the students served as curators of the poems that appeared on posters in the exhibition space on three floors of the West Wing of the new Academic Building during an international conference drawing scholars and poets from around the globe in November 2017. These undergraduates were not only responsible for selecting poems and their translations, but also for crowd-sourcing ideas for poems and translations. Once that step was complete, they then created design briefs for the posters for undergraduates in a Mason Gross School of the Arts design class who then produced the posters. Each poem presented unique challenges and Professor Shaw made sure that the student curators had all the resources they needed drawn from across the University.
The results were dazzling. Over 100 political poems from Antiquity to the present representing a vast array of languages and cultures were featured on these large, individually designed posters that were narrated by these students during the conference. This project produced so much more than a wonderful set of posters, a terrific conference, and student participation in multicultural political poetry slam. One student describes her own transformation during the project: “Aside from being a constant resource, Professor Shaw also taught me how to be a leader. As I was out curating my own section, I began to realize that I myself needed to further hone my leadership skills. Professor Shaw has a way of being persistently persuasive. She knows when to be direct and fixed on a point, just as she knows when to provide encouragement. When I was out in the community collecting poems, I aimed to emulate her ability to always be kind, but to couple the kindness with an immense fierceness about seeing that something is done the right way.”
The students enrolled in “Poetries - Politics” echoed what the many, many students who have passed through Professor Shaw’s courses over the past three decades have said. “Passionate” and “nice” are not two words often paired, but over and over students pair them in describing Professor Shaw. One student quite simply wrote, “Professor Mary Shaw is a force.”
For these reasons, we are delighted to recognize Professor Mary Shaw’s distinguished contribution to undergraduate education.
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Associate ProfessorUlla Berg, Anthropology and Latino and Caribbean Studies
Associate ProfessorJulien Musolino, Psychology
Professor Julien Musolino is an extraordinarily effective, passionate, and popular teacher at Rutgers, and beyond. Building out from his well-known research on developmental psycholinguistics, Professor Musolino has become an extraordinary undergraduate classroom teacher, an ambassador for engaged scholarship, and an internationally recognized public intellectual and educator.
Professor Musolino’s on-campus teaching is more than sufficient to merit this award. Students adore his teaching and he devotes himself to the enterprise wholly. Professor Musolino systematically makes himself available after each of his lectures; he often stays several hours after each class with smaller groups of undergraduate students to discuss ideas ranging from issues in cognitive psychology, to graduate education, to philosophical issues, and even the meaning of life itself, a perennial favorite of undergraduates.
Students’ comments are peppered with praise; “the most effective educator I've had;” “beyond amazing;” “his style of teaching is what it should be in all classrooms;” “he forces us to be critical thinkers;” his “love and knowledge of the subject shone through …and it made me absolutely love coming to class;“ “I have grown so much from this amazing course.” “I loved how much depth the class went into analyzing information. It gave me a totally different outlook on my surroundings and I loved it.” Professor Musolino excels in his ability to translate complex scientific concepts into accessible terms while preserving the essence of scientific phenomena and provoking logically thought-out arguments.
In addition to being a researcher and a teacher on campus, Professor Musolino sees the world as a classroom for the discussion of ideas and values that are deeply important in modern society. Professor Musolino’s 2015 popular science book, The Soul Fallacy garnered praise from the likes of Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, and Sean Carroll. Professor Musolino has appeared on national and international podcasts, television and radio shows, and in various print media. Professor Musolino’s very popular new undergraduate course, “The Religious Mind,” in part mirrors his outreach activities designed to promote a better understanding of science, reason, and critical thinking. Professor Musolino’s outreach activities have had a positive impact on his teaching here at Rutgers and Rutgers’ excellence is well-represented and highly respected by the many audiences he reaches.
Professor Julien Musolino believes that a “scientifically educated public is essential to the fulfillment of our democratic ideals.” We agree. For his work in furthering that both on campus with our own undergraduates, and off campus in the world we all inhabit, we present the Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contribution to Undergraduate Education.
Professor Nicholas Rennie has a remarkable record in both mentoring undergraduates and developing popular courses that successfully engage students in difficult but classic works. His students praise his clarity and his ability to make challenging classic texts accessible—ranging from Dostoevsky to Nietzsche and Freud, from Cervantes to Goethe, and from Marx to Adorno.
In recent years, Professor Rennie has produced a number of highly successful classes that cover an impressive range of teaching goals: “Big Bang—Literature of Chaos and Order,” “Bargaining with the Devil,” and “Marx, Nietzsche, Freud.” While all are based in German literature and philosophy, his courses always build a bridge to the larger European tradition and to issues of our contemporary culture.
“Marx, Nietzsche, Freud” is especially popular, drawing over 100 students each year from a range of disciplines. A peer observer notes, “Few instructors, even those with extensive experience, can match his effectiveness in moving both large and small groups productively through very difficult material without intimidation or rush. He manages to give students the impression they are at once in a large lecture course and in an intimate seminar. He knows the 120 students’ names by heart within the first week and is sure to call on them using their given name.”
Professor Rennie has long served as the German department’s undergraduate chair and numerous students have benefitted immensely from his patient and thorough guidance, which always goes beyond the initial request and often enough results in substantial career advice. Indeed, his mentorship is reflected in the large number of German students who have received Fulbright Fellowships. What stands out among Nicolas’s student evaluations is the great sense of fairness and kindness and the respect with which he encounters each individual student. They frequently note his “genuine and positive presence,” and his generosity and helpfulness, along with describing him as “knowledgeable,” “passionate,” “fair,” “enthusiastic,” and “amazing.” One student sums it up succinctly: “Professor R. is awesome. This is the first class that I've looked forward to waking for and going to early in the morning.”
We are delighted to present Professor Nicholas Rennie with the Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education.
Assistant ProfessorSylvia Chan-Malik, Women’s and Gender Studies
Professor Sylvia Chan-Malik is a creative, energetic teacher and we are fortunate to have her pedagogical gifts and enthusiastic classroom presence among our faculty.
Professor Chan-Malik’s work is critical to the Social Justice minor and she routinely teaches that introductory course. A peer observer described the class thus, “The students were thoroughly engaged in the discussion of course materials and it was clear that they were taking pleasure in the instruction and in the intellectual exchange with their fellow students. It was also clear that they were developing sophistication in their understandings of social justice.”
Professor Chan-Malik also brings her compelling research on American Muslim women into the classroom in her “Islam in/and America” course. This course was part of an Islamic studies initiative that aimed to reach students across the Big Ten Academic Alliance, and was shown through a videoconferencing system to students at the University of Fland, University of Michigan, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During one session Professor Chan-Malik had students list all the stereotypes they have heard about Muslims. She switched the sound off so that the groups from each school could work independently, and then compared what turned out to be very similar lists that included terrorism, oppressing women, and opposing democracy. One of her pedagogical goals is to disrupt the representations and stereotypes that students have about Muslims in the United States, and to teach about the complexity, diversity, and multiplicity of their actual lives and histories, challenging the common mischaracterization of Islam as “a foreign religion from the East” when in fact the majority of American Muslims were Black until changes in immigration law the mid-1970s diversified the U.S. Muslim population.
In sum, Professor Chan-Malik is an inspiring teacher engaging complex and timely topics and challenging stereotypes and inspiring change. She successfully creates community in the classroom and empowers students to move beyond the classroom. One heartfelt tribute from a student sums it up: “…I am … reminded that change does not only occur through big flashy ways—but through small things like the relationships I form every day. Your final quote to us has been in my heart for a while now—‘Go out and love people.’ Seriously thank you for reminding me that social justice at its core is loving people. You are awesome!”
Cleary, Professor Sylvia Chan-Malik has made a distinguished contribution to undergraduate education at Rutgers and beyond which we recognize with this Arts and Sciences award.
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Assistant ProfessorShana Cole, Psychology
Assistant ProfessorJamie Pietruska, History
By all indicators, Professor Jamie Pietruska is a gifted and rigorous teacher. Rutgers students have consistently shown excitement about her classes, confidence in her teaching methods, and enthusiasm about the depth and range of their learning in her classroom.
Professor Pietruska teaches a wide-range of courses including the modern U.S. history survey course along with creating a sequence of innovative courses in the new field of History of Science, Technology, and Environment. Professor Pietruska deftly blends lecture and discussion, balances survey texts with primary sources, maintains an excellent rapport with her students, and promotes active learning through varied assignment types. Peer observers emphasize that “the hallmark of her innovative pedagogy is a combination of public history materials with traditional textbook and primary sources” to help students understand the political implications of how past histories are presented to the public.
Students praise her teaching. One wrote, “her classes are hard and rigorous and yet her talent for inspiring students is profound.” Another remarked, “she … epitomizes what a Rutgers faculty member should be!” Another student described Jamie’s lecture style and reveals how misleading the label “lecture” can be: “The instructor has a very strong teaching style. Whereas most Rutgers professors lecture for 30/45 minutes then ask questions, the instructor for our course constantly asks questions from the readings and the textbook during the lecture. The questions keep students engaged and often resolve confusion from the readings. The instructor also uses Powerpoint more effectively than many of the other professors, especially the frequent use of visual documents, and asking students to analyze the photograph/painting during lecture. More professors should integrate source material into their lectures like this, especially at the 100-level classes.” In short, as one student wrote, “This class and Professor Pietruska was amazing!”
We are happy to present Professor Jamie Pietruska with the Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contribution to Undergraduate Education.
