Young Teacher Award
George Saunders, 1981
"Each year at Commencement Lawrence honors a teacher with less than seven years' service who has shown those qualities that indicate a promise for excellence in teaching, namely, strong potential for an impressive career, superb teaching with well-acclaimed scholarship or creative work, a deep concern for the development of one's skills as a teacher, and a commitment to the learning of one's students.
This year the award goes to a teacher who, in the classic tradition of anthropology, has introduced his students to the riches and complexities of distant cultures, guiding them not only to an intrinsic appreciation of the cultural attainments of others but also to a new and vastly broader perspective from which to view their own society and its values. One of a small but hardy band of campus Italophiles, George Saunders has studied the effects of modernization on family life in a mountain village in Piemonte, and he has directed with distinction the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Florence Program. In his three years at Lawrence, George has brought to the classroom an infectious enthusiasm for learning, a solid grounding in theory, and a wealth of field experience and has, in the process, made the study of anthropology both intellectually challenging and humanely rewarding. While admired and respected by his students for his wide-ranging knowledge, George is also regarded as an open and receptive teacher, one who is attentive to his students' intellectual and personal growth. He has shown devotion to the liberal ideal through the breadth of his course offerings and through interdisciplinary collaboration with his faculty colleagues; and he has demonstrated his concern--one might even say zeal--for the University community through the uncommon act of showing up early for a Committee on Instruction meeting--one week early, that is.
George, we are delighted to honor you as an outstanding young teacher of the Lawrence faculty."