7 faculty members receive awards at Convocation
Seven faculty members were honored for superior teaching, scholarship and service at Convocation in September.
Dr. Gordon Ring, professor of music, was announced as Longwood’s first Simpson Distinguished Professor, a new award to honor outstanding contributions to scholarship or the performing arts by a tenured faculty member.
The Simpson Professorship was established through an endowment given to Longwood this year by Cora Straughan Simpson ’61 and her husband, Murray, to pay tribute to Longwood’s most outstanding faculty members. The professorship, a one-year appointment, includes a summer research stipend of $5,000, an additional grant of $5,000 to be used in support of future scholarship and a course release for the spring semester prior to the summer in which the recipient elects to receive the summer stipend.
Six other faculty awards were also announced at Convocation.
Dr. Audrey Church, M.S. ’93, professor and coordinator of the graduate school librarianship program, received the Maria Bristow Starke Faculty Excellence Award. The former school librarian was elected the 2016-17 president of the American Association of School Librarians in May.
Dr. Gena Southall ’97, M.A.’00, associate professor of English and liberal studies director, received the Maude Glenn Raiford Award. Southall is director of the Liberal Studies Program, which focuses on the academic preparation of K-8 teachers and is the largest major at the university.
Dr. Suzanne Donnelly, assistant professor of science education, is the recipient of the Maude Glenn Raiford Junior Faculty Teaching Award. She teaches physics as well as secondary science courses.
Dr. Larissa “Kat” Tracy, associate professor of medieval literature, received the Provost’s Scholarship Award. She is the author of several books on torture and brutality in the Middle Ages and is the co-founder and co-director of Longwood’s Undergraduate Medieval Conference.
Dr. Larissa Fergeson, professor of history and acting associate vice president for academic affairs, is the recipient of the William David Stuart Leadership and Service Award. Fergeson is an often-quoted authority on civil rights history in Virginia and is university liaison and resident historian at the Robert Russa Moton Museum.
Dr. Sarai Blincoe, assistant professor of psychology, received the Junior Faculty Award. She has been a research analyst for the Navy since 2012 and is a co-author of the recently published manual Trust, Attitudes, and Social Influence: The Cross-Cultural Social Psychology of Counterinsurgency (See story).