At the 2014 Annual Conference last month, we recognized superior faculty members who teach at our Centers abroad. Among these awards were two Excellence in Teaching awards, Instructor of the Year, and two Long-Term Faculty awards.
The Excellence in Teaching and Instructor of the Year awards are student nominated, and each year hundreds of students send in their nominations for their favorite instructors. The Long-Term Faculty award recognizes teachers who have taught for us for more than 20 years and are nominated by our Center Directors. A committee made up of members of the IES Abroad Board of Directors, Academic Council, and Curriculum Committee select the winners each year.
Excellence in Teaching Award
Fabrice Masanès-Rode, IES Abroad Paris French Studies
Meritxell Martin-i-Pardo, IES Abroad Barcelona
Instructor of the Year Award
Chad Futrell, IES Abroad Beijing
Long-Term Faculty Award
Anne Koehne, IES Abroad Freiburg
Guenter Haika, IES Abroad Vienna
Fabrice Masanès-Rode, IES Abroad Paris French Studies
Excellence in Teaching Award
The first Excellence in Teaching recipient is Fabrice Masanès-Rode (IES Abroad Paris French Studies). His photography classes highlight and explore the unique qualities of the city that the students are studying, and helps them discover it through well-crafted and thoughtful assignments. Not only do they learn about photography and art, but they learn about Paris and themselves.
Professor Masanès-Rode has taught at the French Studies Center since 2006. He teaches two classes at the Center, History of Photography and History of Paris. He is also a Professor of Art History and Theory at the University of Paris 8, which is one of our partner institutions. He is known for his innovative teaching style as well as his commitment to research, and is the author of many books and numerous articles. He holds several degrees, including a Masters in Art History from the Université de Montreal, a Masters of Advanced Studies in Art History from L’Université Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, and a Doctorate Summa Cum Laude in History with a focus in Art History from l’Université Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne.
Student nominations for Professor Masanès-Rode were very enthusiastic. One student said, “His dynamic course makes you engage with the Parisian community through field trips, library research, and on-location photography projects. His class was the highlight of my IES Abroad experience!” Dr. Scott Lyngaas, Center Director at Paris French Studies, adds that Professor Masanès-Rode “is a leader among faculty and someone who cares very deeply about what the students are learning and who they are as people. He inspires students to want to learn, to go further in their intellectual pursuits, and profoundly affects their ways of thinking about themselves and humanity.” Another student said simply, “Not only is he an amazing teacher, but he is also an amazing person.”
Meritxell Martin-i-Pardo, IES Abroad Barcelona
Excellence in Teaching Award
The second honoree for Excellence in Teaching is Meritxell Martin-i-Pardo (IES Abroad Barcelona). She has gained a reputation for being what Center Director, Dr. Cèsar Alegre Alsina, refers to as the “classical teacher and mentor. She takes time to commit to all of her students both in their growth as scholars and as people.” In addition to being a superb teacher, she also takes an active role in the faculty, contributing to initiatives to improve teaching at the Center and working with other faculty to create rubrics that are helpful to the students. One of her great successes in Barcelona was redesigning and updating the integral Religions in Spain course, which has been taught as part of the program for many years.
Professor Martin-i-Pardo holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, an M.A. in Religious Studies and History of Religions from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia and she completed her Ph.D. on the History of Religions from the University of Virginia. Her focus for IES Abroad includes courses on Church/State relations in Spain; gypsies[SK2] ; Islamic art and culture; and language, culture, and communication. Recently she modified the course Food as an Expression of Culture to include a substantial component of service learning and volunteering in social initiatives, such as food drives and soup kitchens.
Her students simply love her. Nominations this year have included comments such as, “She was one of those exceptional teachers a student will never forget,” and “She was the most passionate instructor I’ve ever had.” Another noted that “she was, hands down, the best professor abroad, and also the best I have ever had.”
Chad Futrell, IES Abroad Beijing
Instructor of the Year
IES Abroad’s Instructor of the Year award went to Chad Futrell (IES Abroad Beijing). He teaches a variety of courses at IES Abroad Beijing and is described as their “utility infielder China expert.” He possesses an engaging lecture style that promotes student involvement and class discussion and an enthusiasm for student learning and growth. He is known for experimenting with class activities and assignments such as foreign policy simulations and ethnographic field research. Along with all of his diverse social science training, Professor Futrell also incorporates as much Chinese language into his courses as possible, sometimes discussing environmental and foreign policy issues in Mandarin with students outside of class.
Professor Futrell is a Ph.D. candidate in the field of Development Sociology at Cornell University, where he received an M.S. in Development Sociology and completed coursework for an MPS in Environmental Management. He holds a B.A. in Religion Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a Korea Foundation Fellow at Korea University. He has spent more than a decade working, studying, and conducting research in China and Korea, including consulting for numerous NGOs, such as Friends of Nature in Beijing and KFEM – Friends of the Earth Korea. He has published many articles on civil society, NGOs, biodiversity, and sandstorms in China and Korea as well as global environmentalism.
Student evaluations of Professor Futrell are always consistently strong. One nominator of Professor Futrell said, “He really went the extra mile to help students feel passionate about his class.” Passion is a word that is often associated with Chad Futrell—it is seen in his evaluations and in the student nominations over and over.
Anne Koehne, IES Abroad Freiburg
Long-Term Faculty Award
Professor Koehne has taught courses on the domestic and foreign policies of Germany at IES Abroad Freiburg for 30 years. She has an outstanding talent for reconciling seemingly unbridgeable differences in background knowledge and language proficiencies in her students. She always succeeds in including and motivating students with a lower level of German, as well as challenging students with an extensive political knowledge and/or a next to fluent level of German. She won Best Teacher of the Year in 1999 and also in 2005. She receives nominations every year for Excellence in Teaching, and she is a major asset for IES Abroad Freiburg.
She holds an M.A. in Political Science, History, and German from Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat in Freiburg and speaks three languages. She pursues a holistic approach to teaching, incorporating interdisciplinary aspects of her field with the goal of educating students rather than merely teaching political science. Beyond grades and credits, she believes in fostering students’ self-confidence, boosting their motivation and enthusiasm for the subject matter, and enhancing their ability for academic and conceptual thought. Students enjoy Anne’s classes not only as an arena where they are intellectually challenged and are given opportunities to excel, but also as a comfort zone, where they are respected and encouraged.
One observant student noted, “Most of all, you could tell how much she enjoyed teaching, how much she liked the class, and how much she enjoyed and knew about the subject. When your professor is that excited and passionate, the students become inspired and participate more in the class. I would recommend Anne to any and all future IES Abroad students, and I am really going to miss her.”
Guenter Haika, IES Abroad Vienna
Long-Term Faculty Award
The second honoree, Guenter Haika (IES Abroad Vienna), has been inspiring students at IES Abroad Vienna for 36 years, in a broad range of topics centered on Austrian literature. Currently he teaches courses on Theatre (in German), Austria in Text and Film (in German) and The Woman as Writer, and Perspective on German Literature (in English). He holds a Masters in Philosophy from the University of Vienna.
While a conventional perspective on these topics could easily confine itself to literary details, Professor Haika sees each as an opportunity to tackle questions of identity, politics, society, and culture–in other words, using literature as a lens on the context of its time. In doing so, he teases out the relationship between art and history, adding greater depth to both.
Other things that make Professor Haika such an effective teacher and scholar include his willingness to question even his own view of things, to remain open to new possibilities, and to remain unassuming in his intellectual explorations. This ability allows him to teach a course such as The Woman as Writer by utilizing his male identity not as a weakness, but as a strength, openly asking his students to consider if a male perspective on female life bears validity. This self-questioning and an infectious enthusiasm for discovery helps to level the playing field for the students, asking their opinions and elevating their thinking. One recent student said, “He genuinely cares about the growth of his students and treats them with immense respect. I would take a class with him a thousand times over.”
Congratulations to all, and thank you for your dedication!
