Undergraduate students in the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis have the opportunity every spring to recognize and honor outstanding Arts & Sciences faculty, deans and staff through the ArtSci Council Faculty Awards.
This spring was no different, with the exception of a new name for the award.
The ArtSci Council, the undergraduate organization and executive governing body for the College of Arts & Sciences, changed the name of the award to the James E. McLeod Faculty Recognition Award to honor the beloved dean of the college and vice chancellor for students, who died Sept. 6, 2011, after a two-year battle with cancer.
“Dean McLeod was one of the ArtSci Council’s biggest supporters. He was instrumental in this annual event and was a familiar face at the awards ceremony every year,” says Stephanie Poindexter, president of the ArtSci Council and a senior majoring in anthropology and minoring in French.
The five faculty students nominated as having “positively and profoundly influenced their educational experiences at Washington University” were recognized at an awards ceremony April 16 in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge.
The recipients of the 2011-12 James E. McLeod Faculty Recognition Award are:
- Mayu Fujikawa, PhD, post-doctoral teaching fellow in the Department of Art History and Archaeology;
- Annamaria Pileggi, senior lecturer in drama in the Performing Arts Department;
- Amy E. Cislo, PhD, lecturer and interim associate director in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program;
- Lynne Breakstone, PhD, senior lecturer in French in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures; and
- Mohammad Warsi, PhD, lecturer in South Asian languages and culture in the Department of Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.
Sharon Stahl, PhD, senior associate dean in the College of Arts & Sciences, associate vice chancellor for students and dean of the First Year Center, made opening remarks at the ceremony.
The ArtSci Council solicits nominations for the awards from all Arts & Sciences students. The council’s four-member executive committee selects the winning faculty after reviewing the nominations and talking with the ArtSci Council’s departmental representatives.
One student nominator for each award recipient spoke during the ceremony about why his or her nominee made such an impact and presented the faculty with a trophy.
“This is truly a celebration for everyone in the Arts & Sciences community,” Poindexter says.