Two Professors Honored For Teaching

Students from diverse disciplines who took Core courses in photography and linguistics last fall had the benefit of being taught by two professors just recognized for outstanding teaching of undergraduates.

Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture Robin E. Kelsey and Assistant Professor of Linguistics Cedric Boeckx were awarded this year’s Roslyn Abramson Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching, according to a University statement released on Thursday.

The award, which is complemented by a grant, is given to members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for “excellence and sensitivity in teaching undergraduates,” according to the statement.

Kelsey and Boeckx both said that they were deeply honored to receive the award.

Kelsey has taught Literature and Arts B-24, “Constructing Reality: Photography as Fact and Fiction,” four times, and Boeckx has taught Social Analysis 34, “Knowledge of Language,” twice.

Kelsey’s photography core drew over two hundred students and Boeckx’s linguistics core attracted over a hundred students last academic year.

Though most recognized by students for their instruction of Core courses, both Kelsey and Boeckx said that they enjoy teaching small seminar courses in addition to large lecture courses.

“To enjoy lecturing, I think one has to enjoy the theatricality of the lecture rooms,” said Kelsey, who has been at Harvard since 2001 and will become Associate Professor in July. “It’s a kind of performance and I do enjoy that, but I also love the conversation that one has in seminar.”

Kelsey, who had practiced law before receiving his Ph.D in art and architecture from Harvard, said he plans to spend the award money on summer research.

He will begin work on a book on “photography and chance” in June.

Boeckx, who is also head tutor of the Linguistics Department and has been at Harvard since 2003, said that he enjoys teaching undergraduates because they have “this remarkable ability to ask deep questions when they don’t know exactly where they stand in the field.”

Boeckx, who said that he has not yet decided how he will spend the grant money, called the Abramson award a recognition of the “teamwork” in the linguistics department.

Boeckx, who received his Ph.D in linguistics from the University of Connecticut and previously taught at the University of Illinois, said he has also greatly enjoyed supervising senior theses, three of which have received Hoopes Prizes in the past two years.

Kelsey and Boeckx received high praise from undergraduates, especially for their approachability, their humor, and the engaging nature of their courses.

“Cedric, unlike a lot of professors, is eager to interact with students—you get the feeling he enjoys his office hours instead of being forced to hold them,” Ginger E. R. Tanton ’09, who took Boeckx’s Linguistics 88, “Language and Cognition,” wrote in an e-mail.

“He has a knack for generating student interest in a subject that can be abstract and obtuse,” Tanton added.

And Caitlan L. McCloon ’07 said that her ability to distinctly remember what she learned in Kelsey’s Core photography course—a year after she took it—is testament to the professor’s teaching ability.

“It was a very large class but you still felt like he was really approachable,” she said. “You always wanted to go to class.”

—Staff writer Emily J. Nelson can be reached at ejnelson@fas.harvard.edu.