Associate Professor of History Zhihong Chen helped organize the faculty celebration.
The Faculty Research and Creative Endeavors Celebration gave Guilford faculty a much-needed break from the semester to lift up and celebrate each other.
With the 2023-24 academic year drawing to a close, Guilford faculty took a much-needed break from their rigorous teaching to celebrate each other on April 15.
The Faculty Research and Creative Endeavors Celebration was the first of what Associate Professor of History Zhihong Chen and others hope will be an annual affair at the College.
The ceremony, sponsored by Faculty Development and Hege Library and Learning Technologies, was held in the Carnegie Room and celebrated faculty members’ accomplishments. Just outside the room were more than two dozen books published by Guilford faculty.
“It was nice getting faculty together to recognize the hard work we put in,” says Zhihong, who serves as director of Faculty Development. “Guilford is a small school whose faculty invests so much time in teaching our students. That can make it hard to find the time for research work, but many of our faculty have done wonderful work that needs to be celebrated.”
That research includes Lincoln Financial Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Maria Amado’s book, Neoliberalism and Labor Displacement in Panama, which was released last month. Maria’s book examines the explosive growth of street vendors in a country that is simultaneously reducing the vendors’ access to space for selling their goods and services. She discussed her research and read an excerpt from the book Monday.
Christina B. Gidynski ’54 Associate Professor of Psychology Rachel Riskind shared with faculty a series of podcasts she’s partnering on with Northeastern University (and former Guilford) Philosophy Professor Vance Ricks ’92.
Associate Professor of Art Mark Dixon ’96 spoke about his art work, and Zulfiya Tursunova, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, spoke on women’s empowerment and peacebuilding.
“Guilford is fortunate to have so many wonderful, hard-working faculty here,” says Zhihong. “I’m glad we could take an afternoon to celebrate them. I hope more faculty come out next year because they deserve to be celebrated.”