The Board of Regents for Higher Education — which governs the 17 Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) — has recognized 18 CSCU faculty as recipients of the 2017–18 Board of Regents Teaching, Research, Scholarly Excellence Awards and Adjunct Faculty Teaching Awards. The awards were presented at the Fourth Annual CSCU Conference on Student Success and Shared Governance.
The awards are campus-wide recognitions of excellence in teaching or research, as well as creative and scholarly work by CSCU full-time, junior faculty and part-time faculty members. Six system-wide awards are granted to campus award winners in teaching, research, scholarly excellence and adjunct faculty teaching.
Board of Regents Teaching Awards are presented to faculty from each of the state universities and community colleges. Two system-wide teaching awards are given to faculty who best exemplify high quality teaching, one each from the community colleges and universities. The recipient of this year’s Board of Regents System-Wide Teaching Award for the universities is Dr. Richard Zipoli, Associate Professor of Communication Disorders.
Board of Regents Research Awards are granted to faculty among Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Connecticut State Universities. A single system-wide research award is given to the individual who best exemplifies high quality research among the four universities. This year’s Board of Regents System-Wide Research Award was given to Dr. Chelsea Harry, Associate Professor of Philosophy.
Zipoli has been described by a colleague as “one of the most talented and dedicated teachers in the School of Health and Human Services” — one who never seeks to lower his teaching load, who takes on extra assignments, is a scholar, is always available to students and truly shines in the classroom.
One colleague put it this way: “He reminds me of a talented music conductor in the way he interprets content, delivers that information to his students and inspires them to perform in exceptional ways. He is patient, creative, passionate, and encouraging to students.”
Zipoli’s area of expertise focuses on communication disorders and reading difficulties in school-based settings. He uses technology in creative and effective ways and blends lecture with discussion and other best practices for student learning and engagement.
In addition to his dedication and talent in teaching, Zipoli is a scholar. His area of expertise focuses on communication disorders and reading difficulties in school-based settings.
“During his tenure at our institution he has produced an impressive range of peer-reviewed products that include journal publications, national conference presentations, and regional conference presentations,” a colleague wrote in nominating Zipoli.
Zipoli’s research efforts are never done to garner personal recognition, but rather to produce knowledge that has immediate value for practitioners and children, a colleague wrote.
Zipoli advises student researchers “in the same thoughtful manner that he teaches students in his courses. He displays tremendous humility, takes on a graceful, yet firm supporting role, elevates students and builds their confidence,” the colleague wrote.
Zipoli, in reflecting on the honor of his nomination, wrote first of his love of teaching, calling it “easily . . . the most rewarding of my varied roles within higher education.”
He says that many of his students’ lives have been impacted by a communication disorder involving a sibling on the autism spectrum, or a grandparent with impaired speech and language following a stroke. “Their dedication to serving persons with disabilities has made the long hours of preparation, teaching, clinical supervision, informal advisement, and research mentoring well worth the effort,” he wrote.
Zipoli earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology – special education at the University of Connecticut, and both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in communication disorders from Southern.
Although Chelsea Harry arrived at Southern only five years ago, “she has been a remarkably productive scholar in disparate fields, showing an intellectual rigor and ingenuity that merits recognition,” a colleague wrote.
Harry has one book already, two others under advanced contract, and nine articles that have appeared in books or journals, with a tenth under revision.
But it is the quality of Harry’s work and the prestigious publications in which it has appeared that outshine the impressive quantity, colleagues say.
Her fields of specialization are the philosophy of nature, ancient Greek philosophy, and Post Kantian German philosophy.
Harry has already established herself as an internationally recognized leading expert in the field of Aristotelian studies. Her book, Chronos in Aristotle’s Physics: On the Nature of Time, was published by Springer in 2015. The book was selected for a prestigious “Author-Meets-Critics” session at the American Philosophical Association Central Division meeting in Chicago in February.
Harry’s book on non-human animal flourishing has the potential to be a game-changer in her field and “It is easy to see that Dr. Harry’s work will have an impact on the field of philosophy and in the contemporary debate over animal rights,” a colleague wrote.
A second colleague wrote that in five years at Southern, Harry “has demonstrated an exceptionally high level of scholarship that has been recognized both by Southern and her peers in the discipline of Philosophy.”
Her work is already making an impact in her areas of research, and her scholarship has garnered research grants every year she has been at Southern.
In addition, she has been a recipient of the Joan Finn Junior Faculty Research Fellowship, which gave her the time to work on a translation and commentary on the writings of the important German philosopher F. W. J. Schelling.
Harry has become a speaker in demand, and keeps a busy conference schedule, having presented papers at 16 different national and international conferences.
“Last year a paper she authored was accepted into a highly competitive and prestigious workshop in Ancient Philosophy at Humboldt University, Berlin,” one colleague noted. “The pace of her conference presentations and invited talks is hard to match in our department.”
In addition to being successful in receiving grants, Harry is also known as a person who is always supportive of her colleagues’ research in the Philosophy Department and across the institution.
Dr. Harry “contributes immeasurably to the intellectual culture at our institution by organizing colloquia that are attended by students and faculty alike,” a colleague wrote.
She was awarded tenure in August 2017.
Harry received exceptional international recognition when she was an invited and fully funded participant in the 3rd Ancient Philosophy Workshop for Female Graduate Students and Early Career Researchers in 2016, at Humboldt University in Berlin.
Harry holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Duquesne University; a master’s degree with distinction in comparative philosophy from University of Hawai’i at Manoa; and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, magna cum laude, from The George Washington University.
