Georgetown College recognized three members of its faculty for their distinguished contributions to the university during this year’s Convocation of the College Faculty on Jan. 28 in Gonda Theatre.

Interim College Dean Chester Gillis announced Susan Lynskey, Edward Van Keuren and Timothy Wickham-Crowley as the winners of the 2009 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Each received a medal and citation honoring their commitment as teachers.

Nominations came from different departments within Georgetown College, and a committee of past award-winners selected the new recipients.

Susan Lynskey, a visiting assistant professor of theater, has played a significant role in the recent growth of performing arts on campus.

Whether in her classroom or in the many-faceted role of artistic adviser to Georgetown’s co-curricular theater groups, Lynskey’s commitment to her students and to the performing arts department is both substantial and sustained.

“Thanks in large part to her vision and generosity, our community has never felt so expansive in its quality, range and ambition and so cohesive in its commitment to collaboration and excellence,” Derek Goldman, director of the theater and performance studies program, read from a citation during this year’s Faculty College Convocation.
Lynskey joined the faculty in 2003; she teaches courses in acting and dialects in addition to her duties as artistic adviser.

“Her commitment to interdisciplinary (studies) and to the integration of critical and creative work embodies the promise of a liberal arts education,” Goldman said as he continued reading. “To step into the classroom or the rehearsal room with Professor Lynskey is to marvel at a rare educator who is able to connect on a personal basis with every student she encounters.”

The theater professor holds a bachelor’s degree from McGill University in Montreal and a master’s in fine arts from the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

In addition to working as a professional actor, she is dedicated to new play development. Lynskey has spent 15 years as part of artistic initiatives which foster new work including: The Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices, The Millennium Stage and the Page to Stage Festival; Center Stage’s First Look Series; and five years with the downstairs series at the Old Vat at Arena Stage. She also serves as faculty adviser for the Donn B. Murphy One Acts Festival at Georgetown.

Her involvement in Washington theater has opened doors for Georgetown students and provided a bridge between campus and the professional world.

One student wrote in an evaluation of Lynskey, “I have never had a professor who invests so selflessly and so generously in her students’ discoveries in class – or their endeavors outside of class in order to make the learning process joyful, personal and deeply meaningful.”

Edward Van Keuren, chair and associate professor of physics, creates, listens and guides inside the classroom and laboratory where his students explore their own ideas, sometimes failing and sometimes succeeding, but in all instances, achieving a sense of ownership of their work and accomplishment in the often challenging world of physics.

“By devising a complete laboratory curriculum and a Web-based reference on optics, Professor Van Keuren has enabled students to see concretely abstract ideas, develop new learning material and experience firsthand how research science is carried out,” Jim Freericks, professor of physics, read from the honoree’s citation. “With innovative classroom technologies that include clickers, ‘Just in Time Teaching’ and ConcepTest, Professor Van Keuren has transformed a usually one-way physics lecture into a responsive and interactive learning experience.”

Van Keuren also engages students in his research, particularly in his collaborations with the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and the chemistry department. In those collaborations, Van Keuren examines new nanoparticles to create contrast agents that will make small, hard-to-see tumors easier to find in an MRI, and on using nanoparticles and other technologies to kill cancer cells.

Undergraduate students play a significant role in this research and discovery, becoming scientific colleagues in projects resulting in numerous scientific presentations and co-authorship with his students.

The physics professor, who joined Georgetown in 1999, received his bachelor’s in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., and his master’s and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Students have praised the professor for his ability to bring unwieldy derivations within their reach, colleagues said.
“Whether it is over a cup of coffee or while aligning a laser beam, students learn from Professor van Keuren in a variety of ways and settings,” Freericks read.

For more than two decades, Timothy Wickham-Crowley has influenced a large number of Georgetown students through his teaching of sociology.

Over the last 22 years, the associate professor of sociology has taught an array of classes, developing a new course for nearly each of his years at the Hilltop.

As chair of the sociology department’s curriculum committee, his continuous curriculum development work and creation of rigorous syllabi has enabled the department to cover a large number of specialty areas essential for the field, such as Latin America, social movements, political culture, religions, social class, and a host of other areas, according to his colleagues.

“(He) has consistently and cheerfully borne a disproportionately heavy load in terms of both enrollments and class hours,” Sam Marullo, professor and chair of sociology, read from the citation honoring Wickham-Crowley. “Without the benefit of teaching assistants and never cutting corners on intellectual rigor, Professor Wickham-Crowley has taught large classes as well as smaller ones year in and year out. His classrooms are always filled with eager students who know they will always be challenged by difficult readings, stimulating lectures and scrupulous assignments.”

The sociology professor received his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Princeton University and his master’s and Ph.D. from Cornell University before joining Georgetown in 1986.

Wickham-Crowley’s sustained contributions to curricular development and pedagogical improvements across the campus have benefited many departments and programs, according to those responsible for his nomination.

He has served as director of undergraduate studies for the sociology department and anthropology, director of the master’s program for the Center for Latin American Studies and field chair for the Walsh School of Foreign Service’s regional and comparative studies major.