The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) announced the 2020-21 recipients of the LA&PS Awards for Distinction in Research and the Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
The awards are presented to LA&PS faculty who have produced outstanding work and excelled in teaching and research areas.
“It is always a pleasure to recognize the accomplishments of LA&PS faculty, who continue to produce outstanding internationally impactful research and the innovative teaching practices that challenge and engage our amazing students,” said LA&PS Dean, JJ McMurtry.
The Dean’s Award for Distinction in Research recognized two established and two emerging researchers for their contribution to LA&PS’ diverse research disciplines. The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching was presented to three faculty and two teaching assistants who have worked to create exceptional learning experiences for LA&PS students.
LA&PS Award for Distinction in Research
David Goldstein – Established Researcher category
David B. Goldstein is an associate professor of English and coordinator of the Creative Writing Program in LA&PS. His first monograph, Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare’s England, shared the Shakespeare’s Globe Book Award in 2013. A former restaurant critic and food magazine editor, he has also published three co-edited essay collections on subjects related to Shakespeare, food and hospitality; two books of poetry; and a range of essays on early modern literature, food studies, Emmanuel Levinas, ecology and contemporary poetics. For four years he co-directed the Folger Shakespeare Library’s inaugural Mellon-funded collaborative research project, “Before ‘Farm to Table’: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures.”
Margaret Schotte – Emerging Researcher category
Margaret E. Schotte, associate professor in the Department of History, is a historian of early modern science, technology, and information. Her first monograph, Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), is a comparative study of the development and dissemination of Dutch, English and French sailors’ navigational practices in the classroom, on board ship and across international borders. Sailing School traces the impact of print culture on navigational instruction and reconsiders the rise of mathematics in European intellectual and artisanal cultures. It won the American Historical Association’s prestigious Leo Gershoy Award as well as the 2019 Lyman Award in the category of Naval and Maritime Science and Technology from the North American Society for Ocean History. Schotte holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree from the University of Toronto and a PhD from Princeton University. Recent articles focus on early modern questionnaires, ship’s instruments, and navigation as “big science.” Her latest project explores questions of labour, skill and race aboard the ships of the 18th-century French East India Company.
Marcello Musto (Honourable Mention) – Established Researcher category
Marcello Musto is a professor of sociology and is acknowledged globally as one of the authors who has made significant contributions to the revival of Marx studies over the last decade. His major writings comprise four single-authored books, 11 edited volumes and 50 journal articles and books chapters. Among his monographs, there are Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (Bloomsbury, 2018), and The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography (Stanford University Press, 2020). His edited volumes include the recent The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Interpretations (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Karl Marx’s Writings on Alienation (Palgrave, 2021), and Rethinking Alternatives with Marx: Economy, Ecology and Migration (Palgrave, 2021). Musto’s writings have been published worldwide in 25 languages. He is also the editor of the book series Marx, Engels, Marxisms (Palgrave Macmillan) and Critiques and Alternatives to Capitalism (Routledge).
Ratiba Hadj-Moussa (Honourable Mention) – Established Researcher category
Ratiba Hadj-Moussa is a professor of cultural and political sociology in the Department of Sociology in LA&PS. She is affiliated with the graduate programs in Social and Political Thought, Communication and Culture, and Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies. Her research is interdisciplinary in many important respects and explores four major areas: Muslim diasporas and secularism in Western societies; cinema, art and media; radical/popular expressions; and public memory in the Maghreb. These areas are informed by multidimensional axes including gender, politics, peripheral geographies, media and public spheres, and minoritarian/marginalized discourses and practices. Her work aims to contribute to the public exposure of each of these axes in an approach that equally combines an examination of lived realities with the theoretical investigation. She has extensive research experience and has worked on a variety of research projects at the national and international levels.
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
Andrea Kalmin – Teaching Assistant category
Andrea Kalmin was recognized in the teaching assistant category. Kalmin teaches in the Department of Social Science, where she prioritizes a community of practice that is grounded in understanding and empathy. She considers it an honour and privilege to facilitate and advance meaningful and engaging teaching and learning experiences for York’s undergraduate students. Dedicated to embodying a growth mindset and enacting it in the classroom, what excites her most these days is the ability to collaborate with like-minded educators and innovators. She is inspired (and consistently impressed) by student leaders, who are seeking to work together to make a difference and have a real-world impact. This passion has led to her ongoing interest in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research, her teaching involvement in the Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom (C4) and an emerging relationship with the York Capstone Network. She is grateful to be part of York’s vibrant community of teachers and learners.
Ryan James – Contract/Adjunct/CLA category
Ryan James, with the Department of Social Sciences, was recognized in the Contract/Adjunct/CLA category. James is an anthropologist and a course director in the Urban Studies Program. His goal as an educator is to provide space for students to empower themselves by thinking critically, and by developing the research, communications, and analytical skills it will take to understand social problems and challenge social inequity in the 2020s and beyond. His current teaching is focused on urban social movements, cities in popular culture, and climate change adaption and mitigation. When classes moved online in 2020, James reconceptualized the lecture component of his courses as a series of YouTube videos. To boost interest and engagement, he added music, visuals and other effects to the videos, and made them available to the public. “My goal is to make the video lectures look like something people would watch on YouTube because they want to,” James said. “Through my own prior experiences as a first-generation university student, I’ve seen how relatable and accessible content can inspire and motivate students facing barriers.”
Tsvetanka Karagyozova – Tenured/Tenure Stream category
Professor Tsvetanka Karagyozova received an award in the Tenured/Tenure Stream category. Karagyozova is an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the Department of Economics. Her teaching portfolio includes more than 20 courses, from introductory-level required courses to upper-level electives, taught in both small- and large-size class settings, in-person and online. She has held various teaching appoints with universities in both Canada and the U.S. such as the University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, University of Connecticut, and Wesleyan University.
Morris Beckford (Honourable Mention) – Teaching Assistant category
Morris Beckford received an honourable mention in the Teaching Assistant category. Beckford is currently a doctoral student in the Department of Social Work. His focus is on leadership: race and leadership, non-profit organizations, and community development and engagement. He has a passion for education which is notably seen through his commitment to students and his community.
Paul Brienza (Honourable Mention) – Contract/Adjunct/CLA category
Paul Brienza received an honourable mention in the Contract/Adjunct/CLA category. Brienza teaches in the Department of Equity Studies and has a career of teaching excellence that is reflected in many awards and through a stellar commitment to the continuing enhancement of the learning experience of students. This has involved the continuous refinement of the classroom experience through the use of innovative pedagogical methodologies, technological linkages and critical insights that continue to inspire students to achieve academic excellence. Brienza has developed a unique classroom strategy that allows for the integration of “critical” and “progressive” perspectives on the history and context of human rights and its practice in an increasingly complex global environment. This pedagogical strategy is combined with intense research and scholarly commitment that has led Brienza to explore the conceptual history of human rights discourse through the publication of several theoretically oriented monographs and journal articles. The recent publication of The Ontology of the Norm: Essays in the Philosophy of Human Rights has allowed Brienza to bridge the gap between classroom and scholarship. At present, he is also working on a text that is slated for publication in early 2022 and that surveys the intellectual history of the idea of Human Rights. Brienza has a sustained commitment to LA&PS through his extensive work on the creation of a Critical Human Rights master’s degree program.