The University and Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts bestows annual awards recognizing faculty member's teaching and advising, research, scholarship, and creative work in addition to recognizing outstanding service by our faculty and staff.
President’s Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Award
The President’s Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Award was established in 1993 to encourage and recognize excellence in teaching at Loyola Marymount University. These faculty members, nominated by their peers, are recognized as successfully uniting a distinguished record of teaching and an outstanding contribution to research.
2022 President’s Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Awardee: Elizabeth Drummond, Associate Professor of History
The Rains Award for Excellence in Service Award
The Rains Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Works is named after Mrs. Liliore G. Rains, who was a major benefactor to Loyola Marymount University. One award will be given each academic to a tenured professor. The purpose of the award is to recognize a tenured member of the Loyola Marymount University faculty whose scholarship or creative activity exemplifies LMU’s mission in a manner that is both outstanding and meaningful.
2022 Rains for Excellence in Service Awardee: Marne Campbell, Associate Professor and Chair of African American Studies
Term Faculty Distinguished Teaching Awards:
Ky Henderson, English
LMU Ascending Scholar Awards:
Vanessa Díaz, Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies
Graham Beattie, Economics
Daum Professorship Award
Created from a legacy received from Harry M. Daum, Class of 1938, the Daum Professorship is given annually to a tenured professor in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts with full rank who has exhibited a record of excellence in teaching and advising, scholarship or creative work, and service and leadership in their department, college, and university. Nominees must demonstrate consistent excellence in all areas of faculty responsibility commensurate with rank.
2022-2023 Daum Professorship Awardee: Stella Oh, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies
Stella Oh has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and her work on displacement, trauma, and ethical optics continues to impact the field of gender studies, literary studies, and Asian American studies. A deep commitment to inspiring students is an integral part of her identity as a teacher-scholar. Her teaching philosophy and methodology fosters the development of critical thinking skills and empowers students to use their creative imagination to critically grasp, challenge, and change reality in the pursuit of social justice. In addition to mentoring students, she actively mentors junior faculty; helping them to cultivate their teaching and research interests. She is a board member for the Association for Asian American studies; reviewer for AAUW dissertation and postdoc fellowships; and an active member of the LA human Trafficking Task force.
The 2022-23 Daum work will focus on Interdisciplinary scholarship on power, poetics, and passion.
Daum Mid-Career Faculty Research Award
Created from a legacy received from Harry M. Daum, Class of 1938, the Daum Mid-Career Faculty Research Award was inaugurated in 2017 to be given annually to a tenured associate professor in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts who has exhibited a record of excellence in teaching and advising, scholarship and/or creative work, and service to the department, college and university. Nominees should demonstrate consistent excellence in all areas of faculty responsibility commensurate with rank.
2022-2023 Daum Mid-Career Faculty Research Awardee: Julia Lee, Associate Professor of English
Julia Lee is Associate Professor of English and her teaching challenges students to engage in histories of race and racism in creative and innovative ways. Julia’s service and mentoring are focused on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. For the past two years she served on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee (formerly Intercultural Advisory Committee), and advised BCLA’s application for an NEH Humanities Initiative grant, which proposed antiracism programming and curriculum redesign. Within the English Department, she has taken a leadership role in DEI initiatives, drafting a new mission statement, reassessing curriculum, as well as updating Tenure and Promotion standards.
She is the author of two monographs: Our Gang: A Racial History of “The Little Rascals” (University of Minnesota Press, 2015) and The American Slave Narrative and the Victorian Novel (Oxford University Press, 2010), as well as numerous scholarly articles. More recently, she has written about issues of diversity and higher education for general interest publications like the Atlantic and Zocalo Public Square.
Her Daum award will support her latest project Biting the Hand, a blend of memoir, cultural criticism, and history, that explores the fraught position of Asian Americans in the nation’s racial imaginary through her own family’s story.
John R. Popiden Distinguished Service Award
The Popiden Distinguished Faculty Service Award was created in memory of Associate Dean and Professor of Theological Studies John Popiden. This award honors a tenured BCLA faculty member who has given outstanding service to the college, university, profession, and the community. Many of our faculty are lauded for their academic scholarship, but too rarely are they recognized for their service efforts which yield numerous positive effects and a stronger campus and community.
2022 John R. Popiden Distinguished Service Awardee: Amir Hussain, Professor and Chair of Theological Studies
Amir Hussain’s service to LMU is nothing short of spectacular. His CV gives a full accounting of this, from serving on the BCLA Dean’s Advisory Board to serving on the faculty senate, to his extensive work in Student Affairs. He has a demonstrated commitment to the student body of the University, namely our Muslim students as well as basketball student athletes. He was instrumental in the formation of the Muslim Student Life (MSL) office in Student Affairs. He provided advisory, insight and expertise into the students’ needs and helped to steward seed monies and donors from the greater Muslim Community. He has provided several Friday sermons at the weekly Jummah prayer service for students and community members. He taught a year-long Interfaith Course with the Student Affairs Management Team and has written several grants to fund Muslim and Interfaith initiatives. Among his many honors over the years, he was selected as the LMU Registered Student Organization Advisor of the Year; inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the international Jesuit Honor Society; and in 2019 received the St. Ignatius Medal from LMU Campus Ministry in recognition of outstanding service. His CV also lists twenty-six pages of talks and appearances at local churches, business, universities and institutions, near and far, as he is a popular speaker on Islam and Muslims, especially in America.
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award
The Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, presented by the Student Engagement and Success Committee, recognizes faculty members who have positively impacted students through academic advising.
2022 Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Faculty Advisor Awardees:
Stuart Ching, English
Feryal Cherif, Politics/International Relations
Amy Woodson-Boulton, History
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Staff Award
This award has been given annually to recognize a staff member with a well-deserved reputation for sustained excellence and initiative in providing administrative or technical support and service. The recipient consistently approaches responsibilities in ways that demonstrate professionalism, timely follow-through and a dedication to the welfare of faculty, students and staff.
2022 Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Staff Awardees:
Jasmine Hamm, BCLA Dean’s Office
Andrea Middleton, BCLA Dean’s Office