Dr. Kristin Dowell and Dr. Lynn Jones Receive University Graduate Teaching Awards
Congratulations to Dr. Kristin Dowell and Dr. Lynn Jones who have each received the 2020-21 Florida State University Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching! This recognition of excellence in mentoring and teaching is administered by the Office of the Provost on the basis of student and alumni nominations. In the graduate division, only eight of these highly competitive awards are given each year.
Both professors are repeatedly described by their students as enthusiastic, dedicated mentors and role models. Dr. Dowell’s students admire her community-building, collaborative instructional methods; as one writes, “She has a genuine care for both her course and her students, individually and collectively. She is empathetic, compassionate, kind, and a model figure for any emerging professional. Her course was incredibly engaging and dynamic and allowed for a space of inclusion, vulnerability, and community unlike other seminars I’ve participated in during my time at FSU.”
Dr. Jones’s graduate students praise her enthusiasm for collaboration, her confidence in their scholarship, and her active support for research and conference travel. In addition to involving students in publications, exhibitions, and field research abroad, “She will introduce her students to junior and senior scholars, put us in front of publishers, and organize social events in order to integrate us into the academic community. I cannot convey how rare it is to have an advisor who works for you to this degree.”
Drs. Dowell and Jones well represent the excellence of the Art History faculty, who balance their extensive research with commitment to their students’ success. As Dr. Dowell writes, “My teaching is anchored in an ethics of care with core principles of humility, gratitude, compassion, relationality, flexibility and collaboration. I feel that it is my job as a professor to create opportunities for my students to shine.” Dr. Jones explains that this dedication is reciprocal, as her graduate students are “a joy to teach and a constant source of inspiration and energy in the classroom.” The payoff is lasting, as one successful alumnus writes: “My success is a testament to her dedication.”
Past university award recipients in the Department of Art History include Adam Jolles, Lynn Jones, Robert Neuman, and Patricia Rose for teaching, and Lauren Weingarden for undergraduate research mentorship. Recipients of the College of Fine Arts Distinguished Teaching and Research Awards include Jack Freiberg and Lynn Jones. In 2021, Stephanie Leitch received the Graduate School’s Faculty Mentor Award.
