Sensel and Richter Awards Conferred on Professors Kathleeen Martin and Adam Sweeting
On Sept. 11, 2009 Dean Linda Wells announced the winners of the faculty awards: The Sensel and Richter Awards.
The Dr. Ismail Seda Sensel Fund was established in 2004, thanks to the work of alumnus Bob Graves in securing the gift. The Sensel Award ensures that dedicated professors receive the public recognition they deserve for their service and commitment to the college and its students.
This year the award goes to Kathleen Martin, who had a remarkable year of work in 2008-09. Martin received outstanding teaching evaluations, among the highest in the college, for her work with her freshmen in Social Science 101/102. Students laud her for her ability to provide a course that is challenging and thought-provoking. One student says, “Prof. Martin was, for lack of a better word, a great professor.” Martin is available to students, which they appreciate because they also understand that she has very high standards for their work.
Kathleen’s scholarship is of a piece with her teaching. Her book, Hard and Unreal Advice: Mothers, Social Science, and the Victorian Poverty Experts, was published last year. One reviewer from the University of London said of Kathleen’s book: “This is a bold and timely work of cultural history, . . . a combative and thought-provoking contribution to current welfare debate, which merits a much wider audience.” For her excellent teaching linked to her excellent research, Kathleen Martin is richly deserving of the Ismail Sensel Award for 2008.
Alumnus Gary Kraut established the Professors Fund to support the work of faculty. To honor one of his former professors, Peyton Richter, Gary stipulated that one teaching award would be given each year to an individual whose work exemplified the interdisciplinary concept of the program and whom students acclaimed as an outstanding teacher. This year, the Richter Award goes to Adam Sweeting.
Sweeting has distinguished himself as a teacher, scholar, and colleague during his time at the College. He teaches to rave reviews from students in both the first-year humanities sequence of courses in literature, film, and art history, and the second-year humanities sequence in the history of ethical philosophy. Adam’s Ph.D. in American Studies provides a strong interdisciplinary orientation to his teaching. A true generalist, he approaches his work as a skilled scholar and historian of ideas.
Sweeting has authored two books in American Studies: Reading Houses and Building Books: Andrew Jackson Downing and the Architecture of Popular Antebellum Literature 1835-1855 and Beneath the Second Sun: Thoreau, Dickinson and the Cultural History of Indian Summer. In addition, he is collaborating with a CGS colleague on an interdisciplinary humanities textbook for undergraduates.
Students routinely rate him as one of their favorite teachers and recognize his expectations for the very highest quality in class discussion, exams, and papers. One student in the evaluations said of Sweeting, “He is the type of teacher I looked forward to having at college.” Students see his passion for his subject and his dedication to their learning.