To: The Wellesley Community
From: Office of the President
Re: The 2020 Pinanski Prize
Date: April 9, 2020
The Anna and Samuel Pinanski Teaching Prize is awarded annually to members of the Wellesley College faculty to honor excellent teaching across the curriculum. Faculty, staff, and students may submit nominations that offer specific, illustrative examples of excellent teaching, and, this semester, could include descriptions of faculty who excelled in this spring’s unprecedented transition to remote instruction. An individual may make multiple nominations for different faculty, and previous nominations may be resubmitted.
We are currently in the process of finalizing whether the faculty members who are awarded this year’s Pinanski Prize will be announced at the same time we confer degrees upon the Class of 2020, or in a separate setting. Citations describing the particular forte of each recipient will be shared at the end of May to serve as public symbols of the College’s regard for their high-quality teaching. Citations are written, in part, using language from the nominations.
In the past, the prizes were awarded with reference to the three academic areas of humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Recognizing that a number of faculty are appointed to interdisciplinary departments, reference to these three areas will no longer strictly guide committee recommendations.
The Pinanski Prize Committee, composed of past prize winners and three seniors appointed by College Government, works with the chair of the committee to prepare prize recommendations for President Johnson. This year, faculty members on the committee are Kimberly Cassibry, associate professor of art, Soo Hong, Whitehead Associate Professor of Critical Thought and associate professor of education, and Jackie Matthes, assistant professor of biological sciences. Student members are Diana Lam, Megan Ruppel, and Jodi Wei. Senior Associate Dean of Students Carol Bate chairs the committee.
Nominations may be submitted electronically through MyWellesley beginning at 12 p.m. on Thursday, April 9. After logging in to MyWellesley, select the Administrivia tab. The Pinanski Teaching Prize Nomination link is accessible under the “For Everyone” section. The nomination process closes at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 24.
Former Pinanski Prize winners are ineligible candidates for a subsequent award. The list of current ineligible faculty includes:
Rachid Aadnani
Robin Akert
Mary Allen (E)
Christopher Arumainayagam
Connie Bauman (E)
Rebecca Bedell
Barb Beltz
Patricia Berman
Frank Bidart
Dan Brabander
Kathleen Brogan
Martin Brody (E)
Emily Buchholtz
William Cain
John Cameron
Kimberly Cassibry
Stanley Chang
William Coleman (E)
Ann Congleton (E)
Mary Coyne (E)
Elena Creef
Lee Cuba
Beth DeSombre
Alex Diesl
Nicholas Doe
Don Elmore
Paul Fisher
Charles Fisk (E)
Nolan Flynn
Richard French
Charlene Galarneau (E)
Corinne Gartner
Nancy Genero (E)
Tracy Gleason
Stacie Goddard
Brenna Greer
Koichi Hagimoto
David Haines (E)
Bunny Harvey (E)
Michael Hearn (E)
Thomas Hodge
Soo Hong
Nora Hussey (E)
Jenny Johnson
Joseph Joyce
Lidwien Kapteijns
Margaret Keane
Phil Kohl (E)
Nancy Kolodny (E)
Andrea Levitt (E)
David Lindauer
Kathryn Lynch
Paul MacDonald
Stephen Marini
Irene Mata
Jaclyn Matthes
Phyllis McGibbon
Ifeanyi Menkiti (E)
Julia Miwa
Marianne Moore (E)
Robert Paarlberg (E)
Carlos Ramos
Joy Renjilian-Burgy
Michele Respaut (E)
Lisa Rodensky
Larry Rosenwald
Casey Rothschild
Margery Sabin (E)
Orit Shaer
Andrew Shennan
Alan Shuchat (E)
Randy Shull (E)
Andrew Schultz
Frederic Shultz (E)
Marilyn Sides
Glenn Stark
Raymond Starr
Yui Suzuki
Margaret Thompson (E)
Ann Trenk
Franklyn Turbak
Terry Tyler (E)
Ann Velenchik
Carla Verschoor
Maurizio Viano (E)
Wesley Watters
Akila Weerapana
Wini Wood (E)
