Karla Mallette, professor of Italian and of Middle East studies in LSA, has been awarded the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies by the Modern Language Association of America. She was honored for her book, “Lives of the Great Languages: Arabic and Latin in the Medieval Mediterranean.” The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding scholarly work that is written by a member of the association and that involves at least two literatures. The selection committee said of Mallette’s book, “At once lyrical, engaged, and profoundly learned, Karla Mallette’s ‘Lives of the Great Languages: Arabic and Latin in the Medieval Mediterranean’ is a thrilling example of the power, appeal, and breathtaking scope of comparatist literary scholarship at its best.”
David Dunning, professor of psychology in LSA, has been named a co-winner of the 2023 Grawemeyer Award in Psychology, along with Justin Kruger of New York University, for their work identifying a cognitive bias that causes people to overrate their own competence. The Grawemeyer Awards, administered by the University of Louisville, are given for original and creative ideas that have substantial impact in the fields of psychology, music composition, world order, education and religion. Dunning and Kruger are best known for describing the “Dunning-Kruger effect,” which helps explain the human tendency to greatly overestimate their own knowledge or competence.
Jacinda Townsend, Helen Zell Visiting Professor of Creative Writing and lecturer III in English language and literature in LSA, has won the 2022 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for her second novel, “Mother Country.” The award is presented annually by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to support an emerging African American fiction writer. The award is given to honor the late Ernest Gaines, whose stories gave voice to African Americans in rural areas.
Petra Kuppers, the Anita Gonzalez Collegiate Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture, and professor of English language and literature, and of women’s and gender studies in LSA; professor of art in the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design; and professor of theatre and drama, and of dance in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, has been named a 2022 Dance/USA Artist Fellow. She is one of 30 dance and movement-based artists with sustained practices in art for social change who were named as fellows by Dance/USA.
Marie McCarthy, professor of music (music education) in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, is the recipient of the National Association for Music Educators’ 2022 Senior Researcher Award. The award from the NAfME Society for Research in Music Education is the organization’s highest honor, recognizing notable scholarship in the field of music education. The group’s announcement said that “when future scholars attempt to piece together the sociocultural and historical foundations of music education in the 20th and early 21st century, without a doubt, they will turn to the work of Marie McCarthy.”
— Submit requests for faculty or staff Accolades to [email protected].
