KU News Release

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences announces awards to faculty, students

LAWRENCE — The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas honored outstanding faculty and students this spring with more than $20,000 in teaching and student awards. The awards are made possible by gifts from College alumni to KU Endowment.

“The College’s students and faculty make tremendous contributions through their teaching, research and scholarship,” said Joseph E. Steinmetz, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “We are honored to recognize them at this time with these awards.”

Two doctoral students will receive $500 awards for their theses during the College’s master’s degree hooding ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 17, at Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.

— Hilary Hungerford of Highlands Ranch, Colo., is doctoral student in geography. She earned a master’s degree in geography in summer 2007 at KU. Her thesis is titled “Onitsha Market Literature and Negotiations of Modernity in Nigeria.” Hungerford received a bachelor’s degree in 2001 from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

— Ryan Michael Shepard of Lawrence is a doctoral student in communication studies who received a master’s degree from KU in December 2007. His master’s thesis in communication studies is titled “The Art of Simulated Atonement: A Case Study of President George W. Bush.” Shepard received his bachelor’s degree from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

Their department advisers nominated them for the Outstanding Thesis and Research Project Awards. Both were selected this year for the Outstanding Thesis Award.

Hungerford will also received the $3,200 Howard J. Baumgartel Peace and Justice Award. Graduate students in the College or the School of Business are eligible for the award, which supports research for a thesis or dissertation related to peace and justice.

Faculty receiving awards are:

Akira Yamamoto, professor of anthropology and linguistics, will receive the $1,000 Career Achievement Teaching Award presented to a retired faculty member in the College who has distinguished herself or himself through excellence in teaching. Yamamoto will be honored at the College’s new faculty reception in the fall.

Kimberly Swanson, assistant professor of French and Italian, and Antonio Simoes, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, will receive the $5,000 Jessie Marie Senor Cramer and Ann Cramer Root Awards. The awards recognize meritorious teaching and/or research in the French and Italian and Spanish and Portuguese departments.

The recipients of the J. Michael Young Academic Advisor Award for 2008 are Marjorie Swann, associate professor of English; Matthew Buechner, associate professor, Division of Biological Sciences; and Robert Rowland, chair and professor of communication studies. The award honors exemplary advising by a faculty member in each of the three divisions of the College: humanities, natural sciences and social sciences. The award provides each recipient $500, and an additional $500 is added to honoree’s base salary. Recipients will be honored at the College’s distinction/highest distinction ceremony at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 18, at the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.

Four faculty will receive graduate mentor awards of $500 each during the graduate recognition ceremony. William C. Johnson, professor of geography, and Geraldo de Sousa, associate professor of English, will receive the Byron A. Alexander Graduate Mentor Awards. J. Christopher Brown, associate professor of geography, and Rick Ingram, professor of psychology, will receive the John C. Wright Graduate Mentor Awards. Recipients are selected on the basis of nominations received from graduate students in the college.

The American Studies Program received the $1,000 Excellence in Undergraduate Advising Award honoring a College department or program for exemplary work to improve advising at KU.

KU Endowment is the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.