The Fintz Award for Teaching Excellence in the Arts and Humanities

The Fintz Award for Teaching Excellence in the Arts and Humanities recognizes outstanding faculty who, in keeping with the goals of integrative studies, seek to engage students with arts and humanities ways of knowing and to assist them in developing critical thinking and effective communication skills. The Fintz Award is possible thanks to an endowment provided by Professor Ken Waltzer, former director of CISAH, to honor his father. The selection of candidates, final recommendations made by the CISAH Advisory Committee, and awards ceremony take place during the spring semester of each year. IAH faculty may receive the Fintz Awards only once every five years.

2026 Award Recipients

Jonathan Choti

Jonathan Choti is an Associate Professor of African Languages and Cultures in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. He teaches Swahili language courses and several courses on African cultures. His Fintz-recognized course, African Cultures, Languages, and Literature (IAH 211A), centers on an individual class project that takes learning beyond the classroom. Students choose their own topics, interview someone from Africa, and build a scholarly product from the ground up — designing scope, collecting data, and presenting their findings. For Choti, that kind of inquiry reflects what general education in the arts and humanities is for. “IAH teaches ‘how to be human,’” he said, “and prepares students to apply their wide range of knowledge and skills to build a fair, inclusive society that embraces all people.”

Nerli Paredes Ruvalcaba

Nerli Paredes Ruvalcaba is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy whose research is grounded in community needs and oriented toward social justice. Her Reproductive Justice Movements in Latin America (IAH 203) course centers on a semester-long Engaged Reproductive Justice Project — a scaffolded series of assignments that asks students to apply course concepts to a topic of personal significance, then design a concrete proposal for community action. “One of the central roles of my IAH class,” she notes, “is to not only provide critical information in the arts and humanities related to reproductive justice, but to also facilitate a space in which each student feels a strong sense of belonging and has the opportunity to experience the joy of co-creating knowledge and to imagine more just futures in community.”

Aaron Schultz

Aaron Schultz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy whose work explores Buddhist ethics, the justification of punishment, and the moral and political dimensions of technology — including artificial intelligence, the internet, and propaganda. His Fintz-recognized Media, Propaganda, and Justice (IAH 231B) course asks students to select a piece of media and analyze it as propaganda using two theoretical frameworks from the course. The project culminates in peer review with students evaluating each other’s presentations and providing structured feedback. “I often tell my students that my goal is not to produce more professional philosophers,” he said, “but to encourage more people to think philosophically.”

The questions he has in mind are ones he sees running through all of his courses: “What does it mean to live a good life? What does it mean to be a good citizen? What is justice, and how can we contribute to a more just world? What do we owe one another?”

Laura Yares

Laura Yares is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies whose work explores how ideas about religion are created and circulated in educational settings, with particular attention to Jewish history and American culture. Her Fintz-recognized Judaism in America (IAH 211C) course features a distinctive midterm assignment: students read a children’s book about a historical figure or Jewish American context, then write a letter to an imaginary child who has been assigned that book in school. The task asks them to consider what the book teaches and what it leaves out — and to imagine the letter as addressed to a specific child with a specific identity. For Yares, that kind of critical reading is what general education in the humanities is built for. “We all become better citizens when we learn that our ways of knowing are shaped by our own contexts, and that others speak from other kinds of worldviews and cultural belongings,” she said.

The Somers Award for Excellence in Teaching

The Somers Award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes graduate teaching assistants who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence, innovation and creativity in undergraduate teaching. The Somers Award is possible thanks to an endowment provided by Louis and Randy Somers. Nominees are recommended by faculty and students for their strong ability to promote meaningful student-teacher interaction, as well as in creating a classroom environment that encourages active learning and critical thinking.

2026 Award Recipients

Fiifi Anaman (History)

Jackson Clinton (Music)

Kessler Jones (Theatre)

Kathleen Post (Music)

2026 Service to IAH Award

Kristin Arola, Matthew Beil, Esther Belin, Kehli Henry, and Blaire Morseau

This award recognizes exemplary contributions to the programmatic excellence of IAH through administrative support or service. The recipients of this year’s Service to IAH award served as the expert panel for our “Indigenizing IAH” curriculum development initiative, which received Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant funding to promote the growth of Indigenous content and methods in IAH classes.