DePauw Honors Faculty Excellence with Distinguished and University Professor Awards

February 8, 2005

February 8, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - Six members of the DePauw University faculty are being honored for their sustained excellence in teaching, service and professional accomplishment. Neal B. Abraham, executive vice president, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at DePauw University, has announced that the recipients of the Distinguished Professor Awards for 2005-2007 are Robert Hershberger, associate professor of modern languages (Spanish); Daniel Shannon, professor of philosophy; and Jamie Stockton, assistant professor of education studies. Dr. Abraham also has announced the appointment of University Professors for 2005-2009: Yung-chen Chiang, professor of history; Mary Kertzman, professor of physics and astronomy; and Mitchell Merback, associate professor of art.

Each year since 1998-1999, DePauw has recognized three faculty members to receive Distinguished Professor Awards for sustained excellence in teaching and service. University Professor Awards, established in the same year, recognize sustained excellence in teaching, scholarship and service.

A special committee composed of Dean Abraham and 2004-2006 Distinguished Professors Wade Hazel, Vergene Miller and Page Cotton, and 2004-2008 University Professor Valarie Ziegler reviewed dossiers prepared by the nominees as well as confidential letters submitted on behalf of those up for the awards. Recommendations on recipients were then made to DePauw President Robert G. Bottoms, who made the final endorsement.

"We have all been enriched by the contributions of these six individuals," Abraham says. "These awards are a wonderful way in which we affirm the individual and collective strength of DePauw's faculty. We are proud to be associated with fine colleagues noted for their sustained excellence in teaching, service and professional accomplishment."

DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR AWARDS, 2005-2007: for sustained excellence in teaching and service

ROBERT P. HERSHBERGER joined the faculty in 1998 as an assistant professor in modern languages (Spanish) and was promoted to associate professor in 2004. He has taught Spanish language and literature at many different levels in the DePauw curriculum. Dr. Hershberger is recognized by his students and colleagues as a master teacher, ever willing to consult with and assist his colleagues in their teaching, and dedicated to the success of each individual student. He is also an effective practitioner of "service learning," engaging his students in community service projects ranging from translations and language lessons to community-based information technology initiatives which enhance student engagement and student learning.

Hershberger has shared his passion for teaching and learning with students and colleagues in other countries. Prior to coming to DePauw, he taught Spanish and English as a Second Language in several colleges and universities and in Nanjing, China; Mokpo, South Korea; and Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In summer 2004, he served as a visiting faculty member at the AHA Segovia Program where he taught Postmodernist Spanish Literature. He was recognized by DePauw and the General Board of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church with the Exemplary Teaching Award in Fall 2004.

In his service, he has provided an exemplary mix of departmental, University, community, and professional contributions. Among his many contributions is the design and leadership of one of the innovative Community Technology Enhancement Program (CTEP), an organization of students, staff, faculty members, and community partners who refurbish computers and place them with community service organizations, students and families; over 200 computers have been placed in Putnam County under this program. Professor Hershberger currently serves on the Committee on Faculty after completing a three-year term on the Student Life and Academic Atmosphere Committee which he chaired for a year. He serves on the editorial board for Spanish of the REALIA Project and as a translation coordinator for the prosecuting attorney of Allen County, Indiana. His work was recognized with the Liberty Bell Award in April 2004 from the Indiana State Bar Association for his "Community Service Which Strengthens the American System of Freedom Under Law." His publications include two editions of a first-year Spanish textbook Plazas: Lugar de encuentro para la hispanidad which first appeared in 2000 and a new second-year textbook Rumbos which will appear in 2005.

DANIEL E. SHANNON joined the faculty at DePauw in the department of philosophy in Fall 1990 after teaching at McGill University and the University of Toronto. He was promoted to associate professor in 1996 and to professor in 2004 and currently serves as chair of the department. His students describe him as demanding and stimulating, a clear and effective presenter of material and a thoughtful discussion leader, drawing some of their best work from them, often better than they thought possible. His work also has been recognized by an Aspen Foundation Fellowship in 1993, two Faculty Fellowships (2000-2003, 2004-2007), and the Jens Jacobsen Research Award in 2002-2003.

In service, in addition to completing his first term as chair of the department and having agreed to serve a second term, Dr. Shannon completed four years as a member of the Committee on Faculty, which he chaired for a year. He served for three years as a member of the Student Affairs Committee and chaired that committee for two years, helping to develop a number of policies. He has also served on the Student Conduct Board and worked on committees revising the judicial procedures for student conduct violations. His professional service includes reviewing manuscripts for publishers and professional journals; moderating the list serve and reviewing papers for the Hegel Society of America, chairing several professional sessions, and serving as a member of the Executive Board of the International Society for Universal Dialogue (ISUD) and as chair of its review committee for the 6th International Conference.

Professor Shannon is also noted as a scholar of Hegel and as a specialist of German philosophy of the 18th and 19th Centuries, having published a widely acclaimed translation (with notes, introduction and commentary) of Hegel's "Spirit", chapter six of the Phenomenology of Spirit. He has published ten articles in refereed journals, several reports and eight reviews, and he has given ten presentations at state, regional, national, and international conferences.

JAMIE STOCKTON joined the faculty at DePauw in the department of education as a part-time instructor in Fall 1996 and began teaching full-time in January 1998. She completed her Ph.D. in December Jamie Stockton.jpg 2002 and was promoted then to assistant professor; she was awarded tenure effective with the start of last year. She is serving as chair of the department and Director of Teacher Education. She has taught a wide range of curricular offerings and has led the discussions among departmental colleagues, contributing faculty members from other departments, and teachers and administrators from local school systems which led to the recently approved revisions of the Educational Studies and Teacher Education curricula. She is widely acclaimed by her students and by her departmental colleagues as an effective teacher and as a careful and thoughtful adviser. She is also a model colleague who is available to her faculty and school teacher colleagues to consult about how to assess and/or improve various strategies to achieve more effective teaching and learning.

Dr. Stockton is in her second year as chair of her department, and serves on a number of University committees. She has also been involved in designing and managing Saturday and summer science workshops for regional students, and developing an Advisory Council on Science Education to link faculty colleagues at DePauw with science teachers in local high schools. While chairing the Department of Education Studies she has also served as chair of the Teacher Education Committee, as licensing adviser, and as chair of the state-mandated unit assessment committee for our teacher education program. She has conducted in-service workshops for teachers at North Putnam High School and for several schools in the Indianapolis Public School system and has coordinated workshops for local students and teachers with visiting speakers. She has offered several teaching roundtables and faculty forum presentations to colleagues at DePauw. She has taught three years in the DePauw Institute, and contributed to the instructional programs for the DePauw Institute for Girls in Science.

In Professor Stockton's professional work, she has peer-reviewed publications and has made presentations at state, regional and national meetings. She has participated in multi-institutional teams which have gained external support for such things as a symposium on the use of electronic portfolios and for the development of assessments of distance learning courses. She has also contributed to projects on how students and teachers might effectively use Personal Data Assistants in their work. She completed an evaluation of Project Soar High for Gallaudet University; and gained an Eisenhower grant from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to promote science literacy. She also received a grant from the Indiana Professional Standards Board to assess the contributions introductory and intermediate science curricular offerings can make to the preparation of future science teachers.

UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS for 2005-2009: for sustained excellence in teaching, service and professional accomplishments

YUNG-CHEN CHIANG joined the faculty in 1988 as an assistant professor of history and was promoted to associate professor in 1994 and to professor in 2002. He is serving as chair of the department and currently holds the A.W. Crandall Professorship in History. In his teaching, he has helped to broaden the history department's course offerings and its contributions to Asian Studies and Women's Studies. He also has led frequent Winter Term trips to China, opening this important part of the world to hundreds of students and to faculty colleagues as well. His students find him to be a demanding teacher, but one who helps them broaden their cultural and historical perspectives through mind-opening and rewarding experiences. In his service, he is completing his third year as chair of the history department.

Throughout his time at DePauw, Dr. Chiang has served as a regular member of the advisory committee of the now rapidly growing Asian Studies program, to which he also provided interim leadership. He has also served as a new faculty mentor and as a member of the Hartman Center Steering Committee, the Resource Allocation Subcommittee, and the International Education Committee. He is a regular contributor to the community's "Great Decisions Forum."

In his scholarly work, Professor Chiang has published fifteen articles and reviews in refereed journals, but he is particularly noted for his recent book: Social Engineering and the Social Sciences in China, 1919-1949. This critical study has been rated a superior contribution by one external scholar who identifies DePauw through this work. Another colleague at a research university writes that it "is a masterpiece of sociological history." Yet another research university colleague writes "Professor Chiang's astute and meticulous study demonstrates that in the decades before Mao's 1949 revolution, many more than 100 flowers bloomed in the fields of social inquiry. The debate he describes over revolution and agrarian China was key in producing probably the most creative and consequential social science establishment in the Third World at that time. This is a story of critical intellectual debate, personal ambition, American philanthropy (and racism), fund raising imperatives, and social upheaval." He is described as particularly effective in his contributions to scholarship of 20th Century China because of his understanding and critical analysis of both Chinese and Western perspectives on this period. His current ambitious project: Educating 'Pillars of State' in 'the Land of the Free': Chinese Students in the United States 1900-1931 is widely recognized as an important complement to his first book and one expected to have an equal impact.

MARY P. KERTZMAN joined the faculty in 1988 as an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, was promoted to associate professor in 1994, and to professor in 2002. She is serving as chair of the Mary Kertzman.jpg department. In her teaching, Mary has developed and refined much of the curricular offerings in astronomy and astrophysics, including several first-year seminars on such topics as The Cosmic Abundance of the Elements and Mars Odyssey. She has mentored student research collaborators to a high level of accomplishment and has inspired them to continue their studies in graduate school. She not only shares research problems and successes with students in her laboratory in Greencastle, but she has also garnered sustaining research grants and supporting funds to take her research students to major international telescopes for collaborative "observing" and to major national and international conferences to present their work. She has also inspired numerous self-described "non-science" students to enjoy and learn science, almost against their will, initially.

In her service, Dr. Kertzman is completing her second term as chair of her department. Earlier in her tenure at DePauw she served a term on the Faculty Development Committee and chaired the committee through a period of its growth as an internal faculty grants peer-review committee. Among her most distinctive contributions to DePauw was her founding and sustaining, with faculty colleagues biologist Kathleen Jagger and chemist Bridget Gourley, DePauw's innovative Women in Science programs, which include regular monthly programs for women science students, a science alumnae reunion, and the DePauw Institute for Girls in Science, a summer science program for middle school and high school girls. Her commitment to expanding programs to support women in the sciences, particularly in those sciences where they remain underrepresented, has included contributions to national conferences and organizing with Professor Gourley a national workshop for Project Kaleidoscope on Women in Science.

In her research, Professor Kertzman is now a senior member of the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) collaboration for the detection of high energy gamma rays and identification of their extra-galactic sources. Her research contributions to the VERITAS project and earlier research have resulted in thirty-five publications in refereed scholarly journals and conference proceedings. Her work has been supported by major grants from the National Science Foundation.

MITCHELL B. MERBACK joined the faculty in 1992 as an instructor of art, and he was promoted to assistant professor in 1995 and to associate professor in 2001. The second full-time tenure-track art mitch merback.jpg historian hired at DePauw, he has helped to broaden and deepen the curricular offerings in art history. His courses are viewed by his students as challenging, thought provoking and intriguing. He provides insights and interpretations that at first puzzle and astound his students, offering them techniques for analysis and understanding of the visual art which they had not imagined. They report that he draws them into this critical and analytical mode of thinking and learning which has transformed their approach to all others of their courses. He is also rated as one of the most effective and challenging teachers in the Honor Scholar program where his demanding courses are sought out by many students.

In his service, Dr. Merback served as department chair and took on the tasks of shepherding the design and construction of the new Richard E. Peeler Art Center. Through meetings with his faculty colleagues, architects and University administrators, he helped to ensure that the resulting building was carefully designed for all facets of the teaching and learning program. He then conceived of and substantially designed the celebratory opening of the new building. This remarkable three-year dedication of time and concentration to his colleagues, students, and the University as a whole, during an intensely productive period of art historical scholarship was a contribution of enormous value.

In scholarship, Professor Merback's critical accomplishment is his book, The Thief, the Cross and the Wheel: Pain and the Spectacle of Punishment in Medieval and Renaissance Europe in 1999. One external colleague writes that it "is one of the most exciting art historical texts published in years... [it] has three main virtues: first, its subject is original, chiefly attributable to Merback's ability to work with images and identify important features apparently invisible to previous scholars... What I admire most about Merback is the rigor and discipline of his argumentation. He is one of the few art historians in the field of medieval art completely au courant with the latest methodological developments in art history as a whole." The book was recognized by major professional prize nominations, including a finalist for the College Art Association's Charles Rufus Morey Award; the Longman-History Today Prize (runner-up 'Book of the Year'), and a nomination for the Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Book Prize of the Renaissance Society of America. His current research projects include: "'Pierced with a Knife': Christians, Jews and Passion Relic Pilgrimage in Late Medieval Germany"; and "Pilgrimage and Pogrom: Anti-Jewish Myth, Violence and Visual Culture at the Host-Miracles Shrines of Late Medieval Germany in Austria". He has contributed to the intellectual ferment on campus with two lectures about Mel Gibson's recent film, The Passion of the Christ for which was invited by the producers to provide critical analysis for the DVD. His work has been previously recognized by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Leo Baeck Institute / Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Fellowship.

DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORS