Accomplished faculty, staff, and students were feted Tuesday evening at the annual Chancellor’s Honors Banquet, the university’s largest recognition event of the year.
Nine seniors—Amany Alshibli, Kimberly Bress, Justin Crawford, Feroza Freeland, Morgan Hartgrove, Cullen Johnson, Hunter Jones, Katie Porter, and Cody Sain— were recognized for their academic achievement, leadership, and outstanding service with the university’s highest student honor, the Torchbearer award.
Read more about all of the students, faculty, and staff who received awards at the Chancellor’s Honors Banquet.
The following professors received the evening’s top faculty awards:
Macebearer: Doug Blaze
A renowned scholar in the areas of civil procedure, criminal law, professional responsibility, and lawyers as leaders, Blaze came to UT in 1993 to direct the College of Law’s Legal Clinic. Over the years, he has worked in a number of administrative roles, including serving as dean for seven years. He has held the Art Stolnitz Distinguished Professorship since 2002 and the Elvin E. Overton Distinguished Professorship since 2004. Blaze helped students establish UT Pro Bono, the college’s student-directed and staff-supported community service organization. He also established a full-time paid administrative position dedicated to directing public interest initiatives in all of Tennessee’s six law schools. This position is now a fellowship program that has dramatically increased the amount of pro bono work done by students. Blaze is the director of the Institute for Professional Leadership and helped design the College of Law’s Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution.
Alexander Prize: Greg Stuart
The College of Arts and Sciences Excellence Professor and Sally and Alvin Beaman Professor in Psychology, Stuart does clinical research into the prevention and treatment of family violence, with a particular emphasis on how substance abuse affects intimate partner violence. He is the only researcher in the world studying genetic predictors of batterer intervention outcomes, and his work has been funded by more than 40 grants equaling more than $25 million. He’s received accolades for his teaching as well as for mentoring students and colleagues. He’s also a reviewer for 67 scientific journals, the editor of one, and a member of numerous editorial boards.
Jefferson Prize: Jered Sprecher
Sprecher is a professor in the School of Art. Since joining the faculty in 2005, he has gained national and international accolades for his work in painting and drawing. He has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and received highly competitive residencies at the Chinati Foundation and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He has had one-person exhibitions throughout the United States at highly respected commercial galleries and university exhibition venues. This award will support his latest project, an immersive museum exhibition titled The Garden, which will feature new paintings using abstract imagery of plants, trees, and flowers, with a palette drawn from the unlikely pairing of the natural landscape with the glowing light of a digital screen.
L. R. Hesler Award: Marilyn Kallet
The Nancy Moore Goslee Professor of English, Kallet has been a leader of the poetry community on campus and in the Knoxville area since joining the faculty in 1981. She has an international reputation and has published 18 books, which include seven volumes of poetry, translations, children’s books, essays, and anthologies. The works explore the broad realm of human experience, from dealing with loss to falling in love. She has chaired the campus’s Creative Writing program and arranged for major American poets to visit campus. She has held public service readings and workshops for the Cancer Care Community, court-appointed youth at the Kingston (Tennessee) Academy, Tulsa (Oklahoma) Women’s Prison, and at the Young-Williams Animal Center in Knoxville.
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Contact:
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu,)