SAS to honor professors for teaching excellence

Eight professors recently received teaching awards from the School of Arts and Sciences, and they -- not to mention the students they teach -- couldn't be happier about it.

College senior Claudia Jones spoke excitedly about her time in "Introduction to Environmental Analysis," taught by Earth and Environmental Science Professor Robert Giegengack, winner of the Dean's Award for Innovation in Teaching.

Referring to him by the nickname "Gieg," she described his teaching as "unorthodox" but highly effective.

"I had never quite experienced a teaching style like that before," Jones said about her first interaction with the professor two years ago. "He started with the specific and went to the general," but students "remember the general because [they] remember the specific."

She noted that his wide breadth of knowledge allows his classes to be "very accessible for people who aren't science majors."

"I wish there were more professors like him," she said.

The seven other award-winning teachers include English Professor Margreta deGrazia and Mathematics Professor Dennis DeTurck, who will receive the Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching.

The Dean's Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research will be given to Psychology Professor John Sabini, and the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Award for Distinguished Teaching by an Assistant Professor will be awarded to Assistant Professor of Classical Studies Shane Butler. The Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching by Affiliated Faculty will be awarded to Earth and Environmental Science Professor Gomaa Omar, and the College of General Studies Distinguished Teaching Award will be received by English Professor Michel Rabat‚ and Chemistry Professor Tony Pietrovito.

Giegengack said that even at his "advanced age, it is good to know that what [he is] trying to do is well-received" and hopes that his students are "learning things about environmental hazards that will prove to be valuable."

Similarly expressing surprise and appreciation over his recent achievement, Butler remarked that he really cares "about the texts" and tries to show that in the classroom.

He quickly added that "sometimes I think I must look crazy or silly or worse" but concluded that "someone must be taking me seriously, and for that I am very grateful."

College senior Chris Bonfield said that he has been a Butler admirer since he enrolled in his course "Ovid and the Consequences" -- cross-listed as Classical Studies and English 330.

"He takes the dead language of Latin and brings it to life... even for people who don't speak the language," Bonfield said. "I wish I had taken it three years ago." But he added that he would alter two aspects of the class -- "I wish it was a two-term course and we could spend more time doing more work."

Though introduced to deGrazia last fall in the large "Introduction to Shakespeare" lecture setting, College sophomore Rebecca Chodroff still described herself as changed.

"She really influenced my writing style" and "encouraged me to be much more critical of the material," Chodroff said.

Most impressed by her "really, really organized lectures," Chodroff noted that the course further developed her previous studies on Shakespeare, and that deGrazia made the "reading more dynamic."

Describing her own reaction to the phone call in which SAS Dean Samuel Preston told her of the award, deGrazia said she was "stunned," and called the award "humbling."

"It certainly gives me something to live up to in the future."

Also moved from her own experience in "Engaging Contemporary Art: An Introduction to Curatorial and Critical Writing Skills," College senior Joyce Sim praised Rabat‚ for his commitment to teaching and the precision and ease with which he presented course material.

"I think he's really different from other professors" because "he's not afraid to introduce complex issues in contemporary discourse," Sim said, adding that he does this in a way that "makes it not that intimidating" to students "and makes [them] want to go out and explore the unexplored territory."

The course was taught by not only Rabat‚, but alongside local artists. Sim described it as a "modern art theory course" which required the professor to not only apply his knowledge of English, but also his expertise in art history, an area reasoned by Sim to not be his "primary forte."

Though explaining that the class was quite advanced and a challenge to many enrolled, Sim noted that "he really keeps up with the forefront of what's happening in contemporary thought."

"He's got it all," she concluded.

Rabat‚ said that his own passion has not been limited to this past fall's CGS course -- rather, "this specific site in the University" has provided him with "a perfect mix between younger and older students."

"I like the way these seminars... force an instructor to be open and not begin with preconceived ideas," Rabat‚ said, adding that, "I think I have learned a lot about myself" through CGS teaching "and this is the only justification for being a teacher."

The School of Arts and Sciences will present its awards on Monday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in a reception open to the Penn community in the Upper Egyptian Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

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