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Distinguished Teacher and Swords Medal recipients honored
On Sept. 28, the annual fall faculty convocation and awards ceremony
was held in Brooks Music Hall. The event honored Christopher
Dustin, associate professor of philosophy, the recipient of the
2004 Holy Cross Distinguished Teaching Award (see
Dustin’s address in the “Road Signs” section).
The Holy Cross Distinguished Teaching Award recognizes the teaching
excellence of the College’s faculty. Selected by a committee
of students, faculty, alumni and administrators, who review nominations
from individuals and groups on campus, recipients have demonstrated
the College’s commitment to teaching and personalized instruction,
making ideas come alive for students, both in and out of the classroom.
The Distinguished Teacher is invited to give the principal address
during the Faculty Convocation and is awarded a $1,000 honorarium.
According to Stephen Ainlay, vice president for academic affairs
and dean of the College, “Members of the selection committee
were impressed by testimonials from Chris Dustin’s colleagues
who spoke of his relentless dedication to the highest standards
of teaching. Even more so, committee members were impressed by
what people described as Chris’ ability to pass on basic
skills while inspiring students and while not losing sight of the
unique perspective and concerns of each young mind entering the
classroom or office.”
In his introduction, Ainlay recalled the words of Dustin’ colleagues
and students. One professor noted that “to know Chris as
a person is to know Chris as a teacher since the two are inextricably
connected. ‘More than anyone else I know,’ this colleague
observed, ‘he connects life in the classroom with his own
life of the mind. Christopher’s ability to deliver a dazzling
lecture is matched by his ability to pose penetrating questions.
His questions give students a way into difficult material, and
point them further than they thought they could (or needed) to
go.’”
A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1991, and chair of the
philosophy department since 2000, Dustin earned his Ph.D. in philosophy
from Yale University, where he completed a dissertation on “Ethics
and the Possibility of Objectivity.”
Interested in ancient philosophy, moral philosophy, and the philosophy
of art and architecture, he teaches several introductory and intermediate
philosophy courses, as well as advanced seminars on Plato, Aristotle
and Heidegger.
Dustin has published and lectured widely on a variety of topics,
including objectivity in ethics and aesthetics, the role
of emotions in Aristotle's ethical thought, poetry and education
in Plato, freedom and reason in architectural modernism, and classical
architecture and tragedy. He is the co-author, with Holy Cross
visual arts Professor Joanna Ziegler, of the forthcoming Practicing
Mortality: Art, Philosophy, and Contemplative Seeing (St.
Martin’s Press, January 2005).
This year’s recipients of the Raymond J. Swords, S.J., Faculty
Medal were Thomas R. Gottschang, professor of economics, and Rev.
Anthony J. Kuzniewski, S.J., professor of history. The Swords Medal
honors those members of the faculty who have served the College
for 25 years or more.
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