GWS congratulates this year’s recipients of the GWS Outstanding Awards! The GWS Outstanding Student is Paul Michael Atienza, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology, who was recognized for his contributions to “our department’s intellectual culture and sense of community” and his “dedication to collaboration, dialogue, and exchange.” Specifically, Atienza organized a graduate symposium last fall entitled Solidarities of Difference: Keywords in Feminist, Queer, and Trans Studies.
An Honorable Mention was awarded to Bhavanna Khanna, an undergraduate majoring in Psychology and minoring in GWS. She was recognized for her commitment to sex education and prevention of sexual assault on our campus, as well as her work as the social chair of the Sikh Student Association.
The Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award went to Erin Grogan from the Department of English. Erin has been a TA for GWS 100, Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies, and GWS 202, Sexualities; they are currently the instructor for GWS 350, Feminist and Gender Theory. The nomination letter cited the ways in which Erin “skillfully and energetically reframed and contextualized their discussion always in the affirmative, through well-designed activities that invited the students to engage.” A “prepared, enthusiastic, and generous” teacher, Erin was also recognized for their "passionate commitment to scholarship and intellectual investigation.”
Honorable Mention for Outstanding TA went to Shwetha Delanthamajalu from the Department of Sociology for the ways in which she "improved the confidence of her students and encouraged them to take part in leadership roles and to strive for better performances in their coursework.”
Professor Jodi Byrd (English and GWS) received the Outstanding Faculty award. The nomination cited their “incredible grace and leadership during this time of COVID-19,” which included “being accessible to students while respecting the challenges that this pandemic causes to student lives. They engage with how the pandemic effects scholarship, encouraging us to discuss how the scholarship of the course sustains, challenges, or shifts our discourse in digesting the affects of the pandemic.” The nomination letter also praised Professor Byrd for their efforts to “create spaces for other forms of discourse” and offering “opportunities for individualized research and provid[ing] resources that guide scholarship.”
An Honorable Mention for Outstanding Faculty went to Professor Terri Barnes (History and GWS) for her work with GWS 100 students: “Professor Barnes played a great role in helping me realize my passion for the subject, and made me consider taking it as a minor. The content of her course allowed me to open my perspective about how various inequalities exist in today’s society, and how they affect people, even if it isn’t noticed by everyone.”