Williams College Honors Three Faculty Members for Excellence in Teaching and Writing

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., October 26, 2015—Three faculty members at Williams College have been recognized for excellence in teaching and writing. Cecelia Chang (Chinese), Ronadh Cox (geosciences), and Eiko Maruko Siniawer (history) are the recipients of the Nelson Bushnell ’20 Prize, an award given annually to faculty since 1995.

Chang was noted for her “deliberate effort and very careful attention to language pedagogy;” Cox for “excelling in teaching in arenas that aren’t evaluated, like independent studies, advising, summer lab research, public school outreach, and Williams-Mystic field seminars;” and Siniawer for her contributions to the teaching of writing and partly for her tutorial The Two Koreas, one of the few courses on Korea at the college.

Cecilia Chang

Chang, professor of Chinese, is a specialist of second language acquisition. Her scholarship of Chinese pedagogy is extensive, examining topics pertaining to psycholinguistics, second language acquisition and language pedagogy. Her most recent scholarship, See How They Read, explored the metacognitive awareness of non-native readers of Chinese. Professor Chang works not only as the coordinator of the Chinese program here at Williams, but also as a faculty member in the master’s degree program at the Middlebury Summer Chinese School, as a member of the board of directors for both the national and the New England Chinese Language Teachers Associations, and as co-chair of the College Board’s Advanced Placement Chinese Language and Culture Development Committee. Chang teaches all levels of Chinese language courses and applied linguistic courses on Chinese pedagogy. She holds an Ed.D. in language, literacy and culture from UMass Amherst, an M.A. in applied linguistics from UCLA, and a B.A. in Chinese literature from Fu-Jen University.

Eiko Maruko Siniawer

Siniawer, professor of history, specializes in the history of modern Japan. Her first book, Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists, examines issues of political violence and democracy through a focus on violence specialists, or the professionally violent. The book explores the ways in which ruffianism became embedded and institutionalized in the practice of modern Japanese politics and argues that for much of Japan’s modern history, political violence is systemic and so enduring that Japan can be considered a violent democracy. Her current book manuscript in progress is on the concepts of waste and wastefulness in post-World War II Japan. Professor Siniawer teaches a variety of courses on Japanese history, including surveys of early modern and modern Japanese history, a first-year seminar on the Japanese empire, a 300-level course on U.S.-Japan relations, and an advanced tutorial on war memory. She also offers an introductory-level tutorial on Korean history, a 300-level course on comparative histories of the 1930s, and History 301. She holds a Ph.D. in history and an A.M. in East Asian studies, both from Harvard University, and a B.A. in history from Williams College.

Rónadh Cox

Cox, professor and chair of geosciences and chair of maritime studies, has wide-ranging research interests. She studies storm erosion of coasts, focusing on how large waves erode bedrock and move large boulders, and she investigates the formation of gullies in the highlands of Madagascar, using them to understand changing erosion rates and the effect of human activities. She is also involved in analysis of the moons of Jupiter, exploring impact processes on Europa and mountain building on Io. She serves as a science editor for Geology, the Geological Society of America’s flagship journal. Cox involves undergraduate students in all phases of her research, in the field and in the lab. She teaches courses on sedimentology, oceanography, planetary geology, and earth resources, and she contributes to the Williams-Mystic maritime studies program, participating in field seminars on the Mississippi River Delta. She received her B.S. from University College Dublin and her Ph.D. in Geology from Stanford University.

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Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions on U.S. applicants are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

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