Faculty Day, a Fordham tradition that recognizes excellence among Arts and Sciences faculty, returned on March 5 with a handful of new awards and a “Last Lecture” delivered by a retiring professor.
The annual event, which reemerged last year after a pandemic pause, has historically included four teaching awards. This year’s event added six new awards categories to reflect the full breadth of work that Arts and Sciences faculty do, from impactful research to mentorship.
Plus, said Arts and Sciences Dean Jessica Lang, PhD, “we need to celebrate more, and have a little more joy in our world right now.”
A humorous, introductory video set the tone for the evening. Created by Stephanie Adomavicius, director of communications and events within Arts and Sciences, it equated the intellectual demands of academic work with the elite skills of Olympic athletes.
Who took home gold at the event? See the award winners and the last lecturer below.
A Tribute to Students
The event began with a new element, the Last Lecture, to honor a retiring professor’s legacy at Fordham. Students and faculty nominated chemistry professor Sharokh Saba, PhD, to deliver it. After a brief introduction of his Iranian upbringing and career, he focused on his former students’ achievements in research, medicine, tech, and other fields.
“I wanted to specifically talk about them and show how they moved on to being a doctor, a professor, and so on, to show the fruit of our life and work,” he said.
Excellence in Teaching Awards
STEM teaching awardee Deborah Luckett with Arts and Sciences Dean Jessica Lang. (Click the arrow to see other teaching award winners) 
Elissa Aminoff received the social sciences teaching award 
Philosophy professor Mark Burke, SJ, here with Stephanie Adomavicius, won the humanities teaching award 
English professor Julie Chun Kim, winner of the graduate teaching and mentoring award
Students nominated full-time Arts and Sciences professors for one of four teaching awards. This year’s winners were: Deborah C. Luckett, PhD, senior lecturer in biology for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics; Mark J. Burke, SJ, lecturer of philosophy for Excellence in Teaching Humanities; Elissa Aminoff, PhD, associate professor of psychology, for Excellence in Teaching Social Sciences, and Julie Chun Kim, PhD, associate professor of English, for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring.
“I was so surprised and so happy that nine people from my department were able to be there with me,” said Luckett. She was also heartened by the congratulations she received from her former biology students and the loud applause her current students gave her in class.
New Teaching Award for Adjunct Professors
A new award was added this year to recognize excellence in teaching by adjunct faculty. “I’m thankful to Fordham for having such recognition for adjuncts, because not all schools do,” said inaugural winner Eunji Kim, who teaches Japanese in the languages and cultures department.
New Awards for Service, Research, and Mentorship
Faculty were invited to nominate their colleagues (or themselves) for the event’s newest awards.
Johanna L. Francis, PhD, associate professor of economics and department chair (who could not attend) and Jim McCartin, PhD, associate professor of theology, were the inaugural winners of the Institutional Leadership and Service Award. The honor connects back to Fordham’s core principle of cura personalis—“the idea that we have a responsibility to care for the whole person, individuals, and by extension, our community,” said Dean Lang.
This year, three Impactful Research Awards in humanities, social sciences, and science and mathematics were also added to the ceremony. The winners, respectively, were: Leonard Cassuto, PhD, professor of English and author of the influential Graduate Advisor column in the Chronicle of Higher Education; Aseel Sawalha, PhD, associate professor of anthropology, who is researching how refugee artists transform urban areas; and Anantharam Raghuram, PhD, professor and chair of mathematics, who recently received a prestigious Simons Fellowship for his research on L-functions.
The final new award category, mentorship, was announced by Rachel Annunziato, PhD, vice dean for undergraduate education and professor of psychology, who shared her personal gratitude to the winner, Barry Rosenfeld, PhD, professor of psychology. “As a mentor, your example made me believe I could balance so many things,” she said. “And my gosh, you made it look easy!”
