Scholarly Achievements Archive

“Scholarly Achievements” items, shown originally on the campus Announcements page, are archived here.


Holleman Wins Publication Award from American Sociological Association

Article by Daniel Diner ’14

Assistant Professor of Sociology Hannah Holleman has received the 2013 Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Environment and Technology. The biennial award, presented at the ASA’s Annual Meeting, recognizes the top publication in environmental sociology. It went to Holleman and her co-author, the University of Oregon’s John Bellamy Foster, for their paper entitled “Weber and the Environment: Classical Foundations for a Post-Exemptionalist Sociology,” published in the American Journal of Sociology in May of 2012.

Laure Katsaros Receives Mellon New Directions Fellowship to Study Architectural Design

Associate Professor of French Laure Katsaros has received $262,500 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through its New Directions Fellowship program, which exists to “assist faculty members in the humanities … who seek to acquire systematic training outside their own areas of special interest.” Katsaros’ award will support her in earning a master’s degree in the history and philosophy of design from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 2014–15, and in traveling around France to visit several distinctive architectural sites. Her goal is to produce a final project for the master’s program, and eventually a book, tentatively titled Glass Architectures: Utopian Surveillance from Fourier to the Surrealists.   

Sarat to Receive Service Award from Law and Society Association

On May 29, Austin Sarat, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science and associate dean of the faculty, will receive the Ronald Pipkin Service Award from the Law and Society Association (LSA). The award recognizes Sarat, who has previously served as the LSA’s president and a member of its board of trustees, for having “demonstrated sustained and extraordinary service to the Association.”

Horton Honored for Excellence in Teaching Statistics

​The Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America on Statistics Education has granted Nicholas Horton, professor of statistics, the Robert V. Hogg Award for Excellence in Teaching Introductory Statistics.

The award recognizes Horton as an individual who exhibits both excellence and growth in teaching introductory statistics. Horton was presented with the award last month at the 2015 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Antonio, Texas.

Ilan Stavans Publishes "A Most Imperfect Union: A Contrarian History of the United States"

Ilan Stavans, Amherst’s Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture, is the author of A Most Imperfect Union: A Contrarian History of the United States (Basic Books). With text by Stavans and illustrations by cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, the book presents the nation’s history through true stories of its “most overlooked and marginalized peoples: the workers, immigrants, housewives, and slaves who built America from the ground up and made this country what it is today.”

Singh Organizes, and Morales ’14 Presents at, First Liberal Arts Colleges Development Economics Conference

Prakarsh Singh, assistant professor of economics, served as the main organizer for the inaugural Liberal Arts Colleges Development Economics Conference (LAC-DEV). Held on the Amherst College campus on Oct. 4 and 5, LAC-DEV was the first conference in the U.S. designed specifically to bring together development economists based at top liberal arts colleges.

Nicola Courtright Named Vice Chair of American Council of Learned Societies and Editor-in-Chief of Grove Art Online

Nicola M. Courtright, professor of the history of art, chair of European studies and past president of the College Art Association, has been elected vice chair of the Executive Committee of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). She has also been appointed editor-in-chief of Oxford’s Grove Art Online.

Biology Professor Named Associate Editor of International Journal Behaviour

Ethan Clotfelter, associate professor of biology and neuroscience, has been named associate editor of the international journal Behaviour. The journal publishes papers on all aspects of animal (including human) behavior, with a particular emphasis on behavioral evolution. It was founded by Nobel Laureate Niko Tinbergen in 1948.

Douglas Awarded Fellowships For Work on Demjanjuk, accused Cole Bomber

Thanks to fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Lawrence Douglas, the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, will spend the 2013–2014 academic year researching and writing a book on the war crimes trial of Nazi John Demjanjuk, as well as studying firsthand the trial of the alleged architect of the Oct. 12, 2000, bombing of the USS Cole.

Physics Professor to Receive Prize at American Physical Society Meeting Feb. 27, 2012

Professor of Physics David S. Hall ’91 will receive the American Physical Society’s Prize for a Faculty Member for Research at an Undergraduate Institution at its annual meeting in Boston on Feb. 27, the APS has announced. Awarded annually, the prize honors a physicist whose research in an undergraduate setting has achieved wide recognition and contributed significantly to physics. It also recognizes an individual who has played an important and supporting role in the professional development of undergraduate physics students.