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AROUND THE QUADS

In Lumine Tuo

VAN DOREN, TRILLING AWARDS: Andreas Huyssen, Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature, received the 44th annual Mark Van Doren Award for Great Teaching, and Alan Cameron, Anthon Professor of Latin Language and Literature, received the 30th annual Lionel Trilling Award for outstanding book by a faculty member, Greek Mythology in the Roman World. The awards were presented at Faculty House on May 5 by the Columbia College Academic Awards Committee, a 13-member student panel that attended classes and read faculty books to determine the winners. “I think they’re the only prizes on campus that are truly student-driven,” said Zac Frank ’05, co-chair of the committee.

Mark Anderson, chair of the Germanic languages and literature department, described Huyssen as “a wonderful colleague who has a great love of the University and who, despite his strenuous publishing schedule, has never been absent from the German department.”

“I love teaching, I love the classroom,” said Huyssen, who has taught at Columbia since 1986. [Editor’s note: To read Huyssen’s award acceptance speech, see “Columbia Forum.”]

William V. Harris, professor of history, called Greek Mythology in the Roman World “a very imaginative piece of work” and praised Cameron for following his curiosity and not “worrying about what other people are working on.” Said Cameron, “I’ve spent nearly 30 years of my life teaching Columbia undergraduates, so I’m much flattered by the recognition.”

GUGGENHEIMS: The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has named five Columbia faculty members as 2005 Guggenheim Fellows. Jenny Davidson, assistant professor of English and comparative literature, will work on a book, Breeding: Nature and Nurture Before Biology, focusing on 18th-century Britain. Davidson joined the department of English and comparative literature in 2000. [Editor’s note: See March, page 5.] Susan Pedersen, professor of history, is examining the impact of the League of Nations on colonial administration. She will use the fellowship to conduct research in the league archives in Geneva and in the British and French national archives. Pedersen joined the Columbia faculty in 2003 after teaching at Harvard.

The other recipients are Anne Nelson, adjunct professor of international and public affairs, who will apply the fellowship toward a new nonfiction book about a group of Germans and German-Americans active in the anti-Nazi movement in Berlin from 1933–42; Paul Spencer Byard, director of the Historic Preservation Program at the Architecture School and a principal of Platt Byard Dovell White Architects as well as an attorney, who will examine public interest in old architecture; and Mark Slouka, associate professor of creative writing, who will work on a fiction book. He authored the novel God’s Fool; Lost Lake, a collection of stories that was cited as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

These scholars are among 186 selected for the 2005 fellowships, which total $7.1 million. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed based on distinguished achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. The purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is to help provide fellows with 6–12 months to work with as much creative freedom as possible.

10 COLUMBIANS ELECTED: Richard Brilliant, Anna S. Garbedian Professor in the Humanities, and history professors Victoria de Grazia and Alice Kessler-Harris were among 10 Columbians elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year. SEAS Dean Zvi Galil, political science professor Robert Henry Legvold and five faculty from the medical center — Qais Al Awqati, Iva S. Greenwald, Andrew Robert Marks, Gary Struhl and Nancy Sabin Wexler — complete the list of Columbians among the 196 new fellows and 17 new foreign members. Founded in 1780, the academy honors intellectual achievement, leadership and creativity in all fields and includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners among its members.

WEBBY: The Webby Awards, the leading international honor for Web sites, recognized three sites produced by Columbia Digital Knowledge Ventures “Webby Worthy,” a distinction made for the first time this year to recognize sites exhibiting remarkable achievement. Hailed as the “Online Oscars” by Time, the awards are determined by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. DKV’s honored sites are The Architecture and Development of New York City; Randolph Bourne’s America; and China and Europe, 1500–2000 and Beyond: What is Modern?

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