College of Liberal Arts & Sciences confers members of faculty with Awards for Excellence in Service and Excellence in Scholarship

NEW PALTZ – The State University of New York at New Paltz’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has announced the recipients of the 2012 Liberal Arts & Science Awards for Excellence in Service and Excellence in Scholarship at the faculty meeting on Dec. 4. This is the third year these awards have been presented.

The Liberal Arts and Science Excellence in Service Award was given to Kristine Harris, associate professor of history and former director of the Asian studies program. The recipient of the Liberal Arts and Science Excellence in Scholarship Award was Giordana Grossi, associate professor of psychology.

According to James Schiffer, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, “These two colleagues are models of the highest professional standards, and it is a pleasure to see them recognized with these awards. It is an honor to work with faculty of the caliber of Kristine Harris and Giordana Grossi.”

Harris was recognized for her exemplary service as the former director of the Asian studies program for the last 12 years. Under her leadership, the program has grown from a small group of faculty with no funding to a dynamic group of ten active members from nine different departments; from 2-3 contract majors per year to more than 65 majors and minors, all engaged in a curriculum that offers approximately 70 courses spread over the various departments and schools in the College. SUNY New Paltz is the only four-year, comprehensive college to offer a B.A. in Asian studies, and it is among the college’s most successful interdisciplinary programs.

Harris joined the faculty in the Department of History in 1996. Among her most impressive accomplishments are the expansion of the Asian studies program and the establishment of new study abroad programs with colleges and universities in Asia, two recent examples being Nanjing University and National Taipei University. Over the last two years, Harris was instrumental in establishing the East-West Connection Living-Learning Community, a program housed in a wing of a residence hall that pairs students studying Asian languages with foreign exchange students. This program accomplishes a number of important goals of SUNY New Paltz; the integration of international students and the exposure of our domestic students to world cultures and languages. Harris was a significant contributor to the success of the 2012 NYCAS conference sponsored by the college.

Grossi has maintained an exemplary level of scholarship from the time she was hired at New Paltz in 2001 until now. She has published 15 papers, five of them over the past four years. In the period between 2010 and 2012, she published one invited paper and two peer-reviewed scientific papers in top-tier journals in her field, Frontiers of Language Sciences and Biological Psychology. Grossi’s work over the last few years focuses on two highly specialized areas: 1) empirical research focusing on brain organization related to reading and 2) a theoretical program in which she provides a scientific critique of research on inherent sex difference in cognition and brain organization.

Grossi’s scientific papers have received both national and international attention, particularly through her collaborative research with other psychologists at major universities. Grossi’s work with students is particularly impressive given the complexity of her specialty and of the equipment used in her research. She spends a great deal of time training students, sharing her expertise and her enthusiasm in a field that has become the centerpiece of the discipline of psychology.