Summer/Fall 2014 Faculty, Staff and Alumni Awards

December

Troy Kimmel Receives Citizen Service Award from University of Texas Police Department

Geography and the Environment Senior Lecturer Troy M. Kimmel Jr. was acknowledged with a Citizen Service Award presented on Dec. 11 by David Carter, Chief of the University of Texas Police Department (UTPD). This award is presented to a citizen/civilian of the community in recognition of commendable service to assist the department above and beyond the action that would normally be expected. Troy was nominated for his exemplary work at the University, serving as Incident Meteorologist for University events and sports games, and participating in hiring boards & safety committees, in addition to his work as an Instructor in the Department of Geography and the Environment.

In Troy Kimmel’s 27 years of service at University of Texas at Austin, he has remained a passionate advocate for public safety, and continues to inspire students through his popular courses Weather and Climate and Severe and Unusual Weather. Kimmel holds full membership and has earned certifications through the American Meteorological Society, the National Weather Association (NWA) and the International Association of Broadcast Meteorologists. He is the Manager of the Weather and Climate Resource Center, University/Incident Meteorologist for UT Campus Safety and Security Committee, Chief Meteorologist at Legendary KOKE-FM (99.3/98.5FM), and Owner/Meteorologist of KimCo Meteorological Services.

To learn more about Troy, please visit his faculty profile, UT Weather Update page, or website.

September

UT Austin Anthropologist Leads International Feminist Research Seminar

Kim TallBear, associate professor of anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin, and Laura Foster, assistant professor of gender studies at Indiana University, will lead an international meeting on feminism, science and technology Oct. 2-5 at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research and Gender (IRWG).

IRWG has introduced the Feminist Research Seminar concept as a way to examine quandaries in theoretical or empirical research related to gender, women and sexuality.

The seminar brings together a dozen leading scholars from 10 prominent institutions, including Uppsala University in Sweden, to interrogate and further develop work at the intersections of feminisms, post-colonialisms and science studies. TallBear and Foster say the seminar will give participants the opportunity to develop new research methods that bridge the three fields.

Visit this website for more information about the Feminist Research Seminar.

Geography Professor Wins Georgetown University’s Professor of the Year Award

Timothy Beach, an award-winning professor who joined the Department of Geography and the Environment in fall 2014, received the 2014 Faculty of the Year award for teaching excellence by Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

This honor draws from more than 20 programs across the Georgetown University campus and hundreds of faculty. He received the award at a student celebration on April 16 at Georgetown University, where he presented his last lecture to students and colleagues.

Psychology Professor Awarded NSF Grant to Study Children’s Scientific Reasoning

Cristine Legare, associate professor of psychology, has been awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to examine the development of scientific reasoning.

The $1.3 million grant will support Legare’s research titled “Explaining, Exploring and Scientific Reasoning in Museum Settings.” The project investigates how diverse samples of parents and children engage in explanation and exploration of scientific concepts in three children’s museums across the United States, including the Thinkery in Austin. Primary investigators include Maureen Callanan, of University of California Santa Cruz, and David Sobel, of Brown University.

August

English Professor’s Translation of ‘The Decameron’ Wins PEN Award

Wayne A. Rebhorn, the Celanese Centennial Professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin, has won the PEN Literary Award for a translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterpiece “The Decameron.”

The PEN Literary Awards have honored and introduced some of the most outstanding voices in literature for more than 50 years. The awards will be presented at the 24th Annual Literary Awards Festival Nov. 11 in Beverly Hills, California.

Linguistics Alumnus Wins Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Linguistics

The Linguistic Society of America has honored Lev Michael with the 2015 Early Career Award from, recognizing scholars early in their career who have made outstanding contributions to the field of linguistics. Michael is being recognized for his outstanding contributions to language documentation and South American linguistics, including his work in creating the South American Phonological Inventory Database, which houses data from more than 350 languages. Michael received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008, and is currently an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Board of Regents Honors Four Liberal Arts Professors for Outstanding Teaching

Four liberal arts professors will receive the 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards. They are among the 27 faculty award winners of the UT System Board of Regents’ highest teaching honor, which recognizes extraordinary educators from system institutions.

The awards program is one of the nation’s largest monetary teaching recognition programs in higher education, honoring outstanding performance in the classroom and dedication to innovation in undergraduate instruction.

The 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards recipients from the College of Liberal Arts are:

• Kevin Cokley, director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis and professor of educational psychology and African and African diaspora studies;
• Julie Hardwick, professor of history;
• Daron Shaw, University Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Government and Frank C. Erwin, Jr., Centennial Chair in State Politics;
• Sean Theriault, University Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Government.

 June

Three Liberal Arts Professors Receive Prestigious Fellowships

Three professors in the College of Liberal Arts have received prestigious fellowships for the 2014-15 academic year:

Patience Epps, associate professor of linguistics, was awarded a year-long fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies to support her project Linguistic Diversity and the Amazonian Puzzle. Epps’ research explores how sociocultural practices have helped to maintain the extensive linguistic diversity found in Lowland South America. She argues that interaction, as much or more than isolation, has kept diverse languages intact as groups used language as a tool for maintaining identities distinct from other groups in the region.

Oliver Freiberger, associate professor of Asian studies and Religious studies, will work on his book manuscript Discourse Comparison: Revisiting the Comparative Method in the Study of Religion as a fellow in residence at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany during the 2014-15 academic year. Freiberger offers a critique of comparative practices in religious studies, arguing that comparison should center on discourse surrounding religious phenomena rather than on the phenomena themselves.

Marjorie Curry Woods, the Blumberg Centennial Professor of English and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, was awarded a residential fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin for the fall 2014 semester to work on her book Weeping for Dido: Male Writers and Female Emotions in the Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Classroom. The project explores the medieval educational practice of having male students perform speeches in the voices of famous female historical and mythical figures. The practice, Woods suggests, gave boys a vehicle for exploring the often intense emotions attributed to these characters. Woods received exploratory funding for this project through the College of Liberal Arts Humanities Research Award. Go to Life & Letters for more about the Humanities Research Award.

May

Middle Eastern Studies Professor Receives Honorary Doctorate from University of Chicago

John Huehnergard, professor of Middle Eastern Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at the University of Chicago’s 519th Convocation ceremony on June 14.

Huehnergard is a widely admired scholar of Semitic languages and linguistics, historical linguistics, writing systems and ancient Near Eastern history. He is the author of several books and many articles on the history and grammar of the Semitic languages. He concentrates on ancient Semitic languages, especially Akkadian—the cuneiform language of ancient Mesopotamia—Aramaic and Hebrew. He is also interested in theoretical aspects of comparative and historical linguistics, and in the history of writing and literacy.