Dear members of the Colgate community,
I write to share the good news that Rhonda F. Levine, Professor of Sociology, has been selected as the 2016 recipient of The Jerome Balmuth Award for Teaching. I want to thank all of the faculty, staff, and students who took the time to nominate a faculty member for this award. Overall, 26 faculty, staff and students submitted nominations of 15 faculty members this year.
Since her arrival at Colgate in 1982, Professor Levine has taught a variety of courses across the curriculum in sociology, Africana and Latin American studies, and the Core, with emphases on political sociology, and racial and social stratification. In celebration of her upcoming retirement, her department has collected from her former students a remarkable set of tributes that you can view here: rhonda-levine.tumblr.com.
Rhonda has received the Sidney J. and Florence Felten French award for inspirational teaching and was nominated for the Phi Eta Sigma Professor of the Year award on more than one occasion. She was also appointed as the very first Arnold A. Sio Chair in Diversity and Community in 2005, leading the Sio Faculty Seminar on issues related to diversity. Rhonda was a great innovator in terms of teaching methods, promoting classroom conversations across campuses and across student class backgrounds.
In nominating her for the Balmuth Award, faculty members wrote: “The kind of teaching that Rhonda does is invaluable for the University… Her courses provide the foundation that makes it possible for students to eventually do the kind of critical analysis and sophisticated research that draws praise and glory.” “By the end of the semester, they report that they see the world around them completely differently. They understand how social forces shape individuals, how history shapes the present, and how institutions influence our actions. They think about socio-economic class, race, and gender in ways they never did before, regardless of their political perspective entering the course.” “Rhonda embodies the greatest mission…[–one] where the sociological imagination empowers students to view the social world with ‘clear-eyes’ in order to understand their own experiences and see how the social injustices they and others face in the world can be changed.”
Please join me in congratulating Rhonda F. Levine for receiving this award, which will be presented to her at a dinner on Thursday, March 31. It is a pleasure to honor her as we all recognize Colgate’s shared commitment to outstanding, transformative teaching.
Best wishes,
Constance Harsh
Interim Dean of the Faculty and Provost