Ann. S. Ferren Curriculum Design Award

Previous Award Winners
The 2019-2020 Ann Ferren Curriculum Design Award was given to Alexander Zestos, Douglas Fox, Matthew Hartings, and Shouzhong Zou (CAS-Chemistry)
The 2018-2019 Ann Ferren Curriculum Design Award was given to Librarian Rachel Borchardt and Professors Cyndee Finkel, Gregg Harry, Nate Harshman, and Jessica Uscinski (CAS, Physics).
In 2012, Nate invited Rachel to introduce students to information literacy concepts in the new Physics Capstone Seminar. That invitation revealed a need to more systematically incorporate information literacy concepts throughout the curriculum which led to the productive collaboration between the library and physics which we celebrate today. Using a comprehensive, three-tiered information literacy plan that was developed by the AU’s library, they got to work. For instance, Jessica revised Physics-110 as a Habits of Mind course and to meet the Core Curriculum required addressing a learning outcome focused on information literacy. Cyndee worked with Rachel on PHYS-331 Modern Physics, typically taken by second-year physics majors, to introduce information literacy in the field of physics. And in Gregg’s PHYS-440 Experimental Physics course, students are exposed to strategies for selecting high-quality sources for an article they are required to submit to an undergraduate physics research journal. As a result of these collaborations, the Physics Department has a curriculum that introduces, reinforces, and synthesizes information literacy results in a comprehensive curriculum with a Capstone experience that demonstrates mastery of these concepts
The 2017-2018 Ann Ferren Curriculum Design Award was given to Erin Foreman-Murray (Department of Performing Arts, CAS) and Britta Peterson (Department of Performing Arts, CAS)
During the 2017-2018 academic year, Professors Erin Foreman-Murray and Britta Peterson designed a dynamic new dance curriculum, which—true to the liberal arts model—not only encourages, but holds transdisciplinary study at its core. This new dance curriculum is an innovative and unique program allowing students to approach creative practice and critical inquiry through the foundation of embodied knowledge—acquiring cognitive modalities through the body. The dance curriculum has been structurally and pedagogically designed to creatively enable students to integrate their dance studies within and beyond the university. The dexterous design of the dance curriculum responds to the dynamic nature of the moving world. Rather than educate students within a system that reflects the needs of the 20th-century job market, the new dance curriculum seeks to educate the 21st-century artist.
The 2016-2017 Ann Ferren Curriculum Design Award was given to Angie Chuang (School of Communication) and Andrea Malkin Brenner (CAS, Sociology)
Andrea Brenner and Angie Chuang are the twin forces that have created AUx, The American University Experience, a two-semester course sequence designed to help students navigate their academic, social, cultural, and psychological transition to university life. The sequence enables students to become members of a diverse community of learners. AUx further guides students to think about issues of bias, discrimination and social identity from a multidisciplinary perspective. Under Andrea and Anglie’s skilled leadership, the AUx program continues in its pilot phase and by Fall 2018 will impact the education of every undergraduate entering AU. Thank you, Angie and Andrea, for your incredibly important work.
2015-2016
The 2015-2016 Ann Ferren Curriculum Design Award was given to a team of faculty from the Kogod School of Business:Professors William Bellows, Melissa Bradley, Richard Linowes, Jay Pope, Robert Sicina, and Tommy White
Collectively, they are recognized for their work with the Kogod Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative, which was launched in 2014.This interdisciplinary initiative integrates a broad range of majors (not just in business) with the creative problem-solving skills of entrepreneurship. Courses in the program build on the broad spectrum of General Education goals, including strong communication skills, critical analysis skills, quantitative literacy and symbolic reasoning skills, and an awareness of new and different ways of thinking and understanding issues in our ever-changing world.
2014-2015
The 2014-2015 Ann Ferren Curriculum Design Award was given to a team of faculty from the School of International Service: Professors Rose Shinko, Patrick Jackson,and Betsy Cohn
2013-2014
The 2013-2014 Ann Ferren Curriculum Design Award was given to a team of faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences in the Department of Environmental Science: Professors Kiho Kim, Sara Lombardi, Jesse Meiller, and Stephen MacAvoy