Hamilton Lugar School faculty members Shahyar Daneshgar, Michael De Groot, Morten Oxenboell and Attia Youseif received the 2023 Trustees Teaching Award recognizing outstanding teaching and honoring faculty who have had a positive impact on student learning, especially undergraduates. Department chairs and deans identify candidates for the Trustees Teaching Awards, and those who are selected are recognized at a reception in the fall in addition to receiving a monetary award.
“These faculty members have demonstrated excellence in teaching, and through their ongoing academic pursuits,” Hamilton Lugar School Interim Dean Cullather said, “they embody the Hamilton Lugar School motto, ‘The first step to changing the world is seeking to understand it.’”
Daneshgar, senior lecturer in Central Eurasian Studies, (CEUS) is the senior-most non-tenure track faculty member in Central Eurasian Studies. He started as a visiting lecturer in 1990, then completed his Ph.D. at IU in 1995. He has been a full-time non-tenure track lecturer since 2002, and in 2008 he was promoted to senior lecturer. Daneshgar has consistently well-enrolled courses in Persian at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels, is widely acknowledged as a dedicated instructor, and is always central to pedagogical activities relating to Persian culture inside and outside the classroom in Bloomington and across Indiana. His research interests include Iranian/Persian and Turkic linguistic and cultural contacts; Middle Eastern and Central Eurasian comparative folklore and ethnomusicology; ethnic and nationality issues of the Middle East and Central Eurasia, with a special focus on Iran.
De Groot, assistant professor of International Studies, joined the department in the summer of 2019. Since that time, he has taught an array of courses, including in global development, Russian foreign policy, Cold War history, and international security. He regularly cross-lists his courses with the Russian and East European Institute (REEI), enabling him to reach a broader range of students. De Groot earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of Virginia, and has skillfully mixed the use of primary documents, lecture, and student participation to produce vibrant learning environments.
Oxenboell, associate professor in Japanese Studies, and director of the East Asian Studies Center, joined the department of East Asian Languages and Cultures in 2013, and has been an associate professor since 2019. He is a scholar of medieval Japanese conflict, receiving PhD in History in 2009 from the University of Copenhagen. He is a two-time recipient of this award, having previously received the Trustee’s Teaching Award in 2015. Oxenboell is the Founder and Principal Organizer of the IU “Violence Studies Network” that organizes film events, seminars, and workshops on Violence Studies across disciplines, and is one of the principal founding organizers of the Global Indigenous Studies Network. He has received several prestigious grants, fellowships, and awards, including a Freeman Foundation National Consortium for Teaching about Asia Grant and a Mellon Innovating International Research, Teaching, and Collaboration Award.
Youseif is a senior lecturer in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and director of tutoring and conversation in the Arabic Flagship Program. He holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Alexandria University and has published research papers and books in the field. His research focuses on various aspects of linguistics, including, sociolinguistics, semantics, dialectology, discourse analysis, phonetics, applied linguistics, and second language acquisition. Youseif is dedicated to promoting modern pedagogical methods that focus on the relationship between language, culture, and identity. With over two decades of experience in education, he is an esteemed academic in the field of linguistics.