Three faculty members from the College of Letters & Science have been chosen for the University of Wisconsin-Madison's prestigious Hilldale Awards, an annual recognition that dates back to 1987.
Overall, four UW-Madison faculty members — one each from the four faculty divisions (biological sciences, social sciences, physical sciences, and arts and humanities) — received the awards. The recipients will be honored at the April 6 meeting of the Faculty Senate. The award recognizes scholarly contributions in teaching, research and service and comes with a $7,500 prize.
This year’s Hilldale Award recipients are:
Arts and Humanities: Rachel Feldhay Brenner
Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies in the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies
Brenner
Rachel Brenner has published six books and 50 or so peer-reviewed articles, contributed 19 scholarly anthology chapters, delivered numerous public lectures and served on multiple committees across campus. All the while, she has still made time to teach Hebrew literature in Hebrew, and several popular courses.
Among them are a large lecture course on Zionism and a course on the representation of women in modern Jewish literature. Brenner has been honored with three campus teaching awards.
She has also made numerous contributions to the fields of Hebrew literature, Jewish and non-Jewish literature, and Holocaust studies, and has been recognized through numerous other fellowships, scholarships and career awards.
"We are thrilled that Rachel Brenner was awarded a Hilldale Award," says Simone Schweber, Goodman Professor of Education and Jewish Studies and chair of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. "A crowning achievement for a deserving scholar, this award marks a pinnacle in a productive and distinguished career."
Physical Sciences: James Skinner
Professor, Department of Chemistry
Skinner
"Jim is one of the leading theoretical chemists in the world," writes Robert J. McMahon, the Helfaer Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Department of Chemistry, in his nomination letter. "His record speaks for itself."
Indeed, James Skinner is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a prestigious recognition reserved for only the most productive and influential scientists. He has given more than 300 invited talks and has won numerous recognitions and awards. At the same time, the chemist averages near perfect scores on annual university teaching evaluations, and has won the coveted Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award.
Skinner's work has focused primarily on the structure and dynamics of solids and liquids, particularly water, and has contributed substantially to his field.
"A hallmark of Jim's science is his ability to connect sophisticated theory with state-of-the-art experiments," McMahon writes. "This ability to connect with measurements is one of the reasons his impact is both broad and deep."
Social Studies: Jane Collins
Professor of Community & Environmental Sociology and Gender and Women's Studies
Collins
"Jane Collins is a gifted and creative thinker, and an innovative, highly productive, internationally recognized scholar," write community and environmental sociology Chair Jess Gilbert and gender and women's studies Chair Judith Houck in their joint nomination letter.
Throughout her career — which includes more than two decades at UW-Madison — the economic and cultural sociologist has made substantial contributions to our understanding of labor processes and globalization, labor and global commodity chains, shifting frameworks for assessing economic value, and global cultural studies, focusing primarily on women’s work. It’s taken her from arid agricultural fields in Brazil to coffee farms on the eastern slopes of the Andes to apparel factories in Mexico and the U.S. and to neighborhoods in Milwaukee and Racine.
Collins offers a popular graduate seminar that has inspired more than two dozen dissertations. She has mentored 22 graduate students and served on more than 100 thesis committees across 20 university departments. In addition, Collins has served on innumerable university and professional committees.
To read about all the Hilldale recipients, read this story from University Communications.