The Academic Awards Committee of Columbia Colleges announced the 2018 winner of the student-nominated Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching, Prof. Gauri Viswanathan, the Class of 1933 Professor of English and Comparative Literature and director of the South Asia Institute. She was honored with the 57th annual Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching for her unparalleled dedication to teaching and to her students at a ceremony on Wednesday, May 2, at 6 p.m. in Low Library.
The Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching was established in honor of Mark Van Doren GSAS’20, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, novelist, playwright, critic, editor and biographer, as well as a renowned scholar and legendary Columbia faculty member. It has been awarded annually since 1962 in recognition of a faculty member’s humanity, devotion to truth and inspiring leadership.
Committee members were impressed with Viswanathan’s personal mentorship and the ways in which she made the topics of her class compelling for everyone.
“In the classroom, committee members were struck by the manner in which Professor Viswanathan directed the conversation and the unmistakably global scale of her thinking,” said Anvita Budhraja CC’18, Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching Chair. “Outside the classroom, her personal approach to mentorship, the ease of communication that she maintains, and her dedication to the South Asia Institute were some of the things that really stood out for us.” [More]
