On Tuesday, Nov. 14th, 4:30 p.m come celebrate the three Smith faculty recipients of the 2017 Sherrerd Teaching Awards at the Carroll Room of the Campus Center. The 2017 prize recipients are Mark Brandriss, Ginetta Candelario ’90 and Laura A. Katz.
The Kathleen Compton Sherrerd ’54 and John J. F. Sherrerd Prize for Distinguished Teaching is annually given to Smith faculty members in recognition of their distinguished teaching records and demonstrated enthusiasm and excellence.
The honorees were chosen based on nominations submitted by Smith students, faculty and alumnae, who cited passion, accessibility and humor as among the exceptional attributes of the 2017 award winners.
Smith has long placed a high value on teaching and sees the Sherrerd Prize as a symbol of its commitment and dedication to superior pedagogy.
“Smith College has traditionally emphasized the importance of dynamic, diverse and interactive teaching in imparting the principles of the sciences and liberal arts to its high-achieving students,” said President Carol T. Christ at the establishment of the prize in 2009. “The college considers the teaching of its students to be among its most essential objectives as a leading institution of women’s education.”
Mark Brandriss is a senior lecturer in geosciences. He teaches courses in field geology and Earth history and more advanced courses in mineralogy and tectonics. His research is mainly focused on how magmas evolve and crystallize within the Earth’s crust. Using a combination of field studies and geochemical techniques, he and his students examine igneous rocks that formed in a variety of tectonic environments.
Ginetta Candelario is an associate professor of sociology. Her research interests include Dominican history and society, with a focus on national identity formation and women’s history; Blackness in the Americas; Latin American, Caribbean and Latina feminisms; Latina/o communities (particularly Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican).
She has been a Fulbright Scholar in the Dominican Republic twice, in 2003 and in 2016. Her book, “Black behind the ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops,” was published in 2007 and received the 2009 Best Book Award from the Latino Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association and the 2008 Best Book Award from the New England Council of Latin American Studies. The book has also appeared in interdisciplinary journals.
Laura Katz is a professor of biological sciences and her lab aims to explain principles of eukaryotic evolution through phylogenetic reconstruction, community sampling and analyses of genome evolution. The bulk of eukaryotic diversity is microbial. However, many of these microbial lineages are understudied, and their lab’s focus is on ciliates and under-sampled amoebae.
