Steinson honored as DPU celebrates faculty excellence
Barbara J. Steinson, professor of history who is retiring from DePauw University at the end of the current academic year after 38 years, is the 2016 recipient of the Fred C. Tucker Jr. Distinguished Career Award.
Presented annually by the president of the university to one or more senior members of the faculty since 1988, the Tucker Award is designed to recognize the achievements of those faculty members who have made notable contributions to DePauw by their commitments to students, teaching excellence, their chosen disciplines, and service to the university.
Steinson has taught courses in a variety of topics related to 19th- and 20th-century U.S. history and U.S. women's history.
From 2000-06 she co-chaired the Rural Women's Studies East College Tulips Association, an international group devoted to the interdisciplinary study of rural women, and was also vice president and president of the Indiana Association of Historians.
The Tucker Award was one of several honors presented at the recent faculty recognition program hosted by President Brian W. Casey at The Elms.
Matthew K. Oware, associate professor and chairman of sociology and anthropology, was presented with the Edwin L. Minar Jr. Scholarship Award.
Established in 1981, the Minar Award is presented in recognition of exceptional scholarly achievement by a faculty member and is named in honor of its first recipient, a former professor in the department of classical studies.
Jeane Pope, associate professor of geosciences, received the G. Bromley Oxnam Award for Service.
Named after DePauw's 13th president (1928-36), the award was created in 2009 by a gift from Neal B. Abraham, who served as DePauw's executive vice president, vice president for academic affairs and professor of physics from 1998 to 2009, and his wife, Donna L. Wiley.
The evening's festivities included recognition of five DePauw faculty members who are retiring at the conclusion of the current academic year (the year the joined the faculty is noted parenthetically): Masha Belyavski-Frank (1992), Marguerite Andrade professor of modern languages (Russian); Mary M. Bretscher (1974), associate professor of kinesiology; Thomas C. Chiarella (1988), Hampton and Esther Boswell distinguished university professor of creative writing; John T. Schlotterbeck (1978), A.W. Crandall professor of history; and Steinson (1978), professor of history.