Humanities Faculty Spotlight:

Humanities Professors Garner University Awards

The College of Humanities is proud to announce that four members of its faculty have recently garnered university awards. Jim Phelan was awarded the permanent title of University Distinguished Professor, Leslie M. Alexander and Elizabeth Renker each received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, and Peter W. Culicover received the Distinguished Scholar Award.

Phelan is a professor in the Department of English. His designation as University Distinguished Professor recognizes his accomplishments in every area of the university's mission: research, teaching, and service. He has an international reputation among respected colleagues around the world who know him a "towering figure in the field of narrative theory."

Professor Phelan's professional qualities combined with a record of truly significant accomplishments led to this most recent accolade. He is a past winner of the university's highest awards for teaching and research, and was the recipient of the Arts and Sciences Research Award for Exemplary Service in 2004. His peers describe him as "a genuine pioneer in the intellectual world" and "an outstanding representative of Ohio State."

Alexander is an associate professor in the Department of History. Her background in African American history, combined with the enthusiasm she conveys to students about the material, help her show the importance of history as it pertains to present-day life.

"She really promotes how relevant history is to everyone, every day, and how current events recreate certain historical trends," one student said.

In an attempt to enhance the study of African American history, Alexander spearheaded the creation of seven new courses in the department for both undergraduate and graduate students, and helped redesign existing courses.

Renker is an associate professor in the Department of English. Student nominators wrote that she is tough, demands quality effort, is a notoriously hard grader and that she is one of the best professors they've ever encountered.

"Dr. Renker is one of the most challenging instructors I have had. She challenges students to be specific, concrete, clear and organized in every aspect of their work and demonstrates these qualities in her own work," one student said. "But she is as supportive as she is critical."

Students further describe Renker as passionate, knowledgeable, approachable and enthusiastic, and appreciate her willingness to meet them out of class for extra help.

Culicover is a professor in the Department of Linguistics. As a leading international syntactic theoretician, he is known for his research on the balance between structure (syntax) and meaning (semantics) in the production and interpretation of sentences.

Yet his ability to combine his love for linguistics with his breadth of interests in other fields — ranging from psychology to philosophy to computer science — has put him at the forefront of the study of human language. "Peter Culicover is a major figure in the field of linguistics, whose work has important implications for neighboring disciplines," another colleague said. "He is prolific, and his work is both original and deep."