The Columbia College Student Council's Academic Awards Committee announced this year's winners of the Mark Van Doren and Lionel Trilling awards.

The 51th annual Mark Van Doren Award, which honors a Columbia professor for his/her commitment to undergraduate instruction as well as for “humanity, devotion to truth and inspiring leadership,” will being presented to Christia Mercer, Gustave M. Berne Professor. Mercer earned a Ph.D. from the Princeton University in 1989 and specializes in Early Modern Philosophy, History of Platonism and History of Feminism. The award is named for Mark Van Doren '21 GSAS, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, novelist, literary critic and longtime Columbia faculty member with a reputation for pedagogical greatness.

The 37th annual Lionel Trilling Award will be presented to David B. Lurie '01 GSAS, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, for his book Realms of Literacy: Early Japan and the History of Writing. Lurie earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2001 and has been teaching at Columbia since 2009. The Trilling Award honors a book from the past year by a Columbia professor that best exhibits the standards of intellect and scholarship found in the work of longtime Columbia faculty member Lionel Trilling ’25, ’26 GSAS, ’38 GSAS, an author and renowned literary critic.