Stacey Langwick, Associate Professor in the Department of , was one of eight faculty members recognized for excellence in teaching undergraduate students and contributions to undergraduate education at the university.
The Stephen H. Weiss Awards were announced Oct. 18 by President Martha E. Pollack in a report to the Cornell University Board of Trustees.
“The Weiss Awards are the highest honors Cornell confers for superb teaching,” Pollack said. “Committed, engaging and energizing, these teachers exemplify Cornell’s priority on educational verve.”
Professor Langwick was one of three professors who received Stephen H. Weiss Junior Fellowship Awards, recognizing early-career tenured faculty. Tasha Lewis, Ph.D. ’09, fiber science and apparel design; and Courtney Roby, classics, also received junior fellowships.
Langiwck is an anthropologist of healing and medicine in Africa. She teaches courses on the anthropology of medicine, healing and the body; toxicity and the relationships between ecologies and health. She helped inspire a revision of the anthropology department's curriculum by designing a large introductory class that addresses critical issues in medicine today through the lens of anthropology.
When she joined the faculty in 2006, there were no courses in medical anthropology. “She developed eight courses in that subfield, and her course Medicine, Culture and Society, with 75-100 students, became a model for courses that stand at the intersection of technical courses and qualitative social science and social theory,” the committee wrote. “Other faculty in anthropology have since developed similar courses, addressing different professions.”
Her research focuses on healing and care in East Africa. Langwick was central in the efforts to found the Cornell Global Health Program and remains on the advisory board. She also served as lead instructor for the summer study abroad program in Tanzania.
Professor Langwick's students have noted her “remarkable ingenuity in shaping the classroom experience.” One wrote: “Her engaging teaching style fostered intellectual growth [and] encouraged students to be present and think critically about the material.”
Congratulations, Professor Langwick.
Tom Gilovich, professor of psychology; Kyle Shen, professor of physics; and Kim Weeden, the Jan Rock Zubrow ’77 Professor of the Social Sciences, were recognized with Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowships, honoring tenured faculty members who have sustained records of effective, inspiring and distinguished teaching, and contributions to undergraduate education.
Philip Krasicky, senior lecturer in the Department of Physics; and Cindy van Es, professor of practice in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, received Stephen H. Weiss Provost’s Teaching Fellowship Awards, honoring untenured faculty members.
The eight awardees were unanimously recommended by a selection committee composed of six faculty members and two students, who considered 37 distinguished nominees in all.
Established in 1992, the Weiss Presidential Fellowship was conceived by the late Stephen H. Weiss ’57, chairman emeritus of the board of trustees, to recognize tenured Cornell faculty members for teaching and mentoring undergraduates. The Junior Fellowship and Provost’s Teaching Fellowship Awards were established in 2016.
