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English Wins Top Research Award for Fifth Year in a Row
Heidi Braden Wins Staff Excellence Award
Dr. Hillary Eklund
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OR the fifth year in a row, an English professor has won the college’s top research award. Dr. Hillary Eklund received this year’s Faculty Excellence in Research Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. Previous English award winners as the college’s top scholar include Trimiko Melancon (2014), Chris Schaberg (2015), John Biguenet (2016), and Mark Yakich (2017). Professor Eklund describes her scholarship as focusing on the interplay of stories and morality. “My research stems from a curiosity about how people choose to live in the world and the stories they tell to morally justify their choices,” she says. “My first book, Literature and Moral Economy in the Early Modern Atlantic, and my edited collection, Ground-Work: English Renaissance Literature and Soil Science, follow this curiosity from English playhouses to the colonial frontiers of America, asking questions about trade, politics, food, land use, and social justice.” In nominating her for the award, English chair John Biguenet wrote: “Dr. Eklund is developing new areas of research in Renaissance literature that
are directly applicable to contemporary problems, whether environmental issues related to coastal wetland erosion or the moral calculus of sufficiency in a world of unequal distribution of wealth and resources. (Not surprisingly, her service-learning course on Shakespeare, in which students seek to address hunger in New Orleans, is one of the most impressive I’ve observed.) In bestowing upon her the award for excellence in research, the college will honor a colleague who integrates the highest standards of scholarship with a keen insistence on moral consequences.” This is not the only faculty award Eklund has received. In 2014, she won the college’s Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award. At many universities, the distinction between teaching faculty and research faculty is significant. But the English Department at Loyola integrates scholarship and teaching in all of its classes as well as in the close collaboration of English majors and faculty on joint research projects, so it comes as no surprise that an English faculty member has been honored with both teaching and research awards.
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he College of Arts and Sciences bestowed its 2018 Staff Excellence Award on Heidi Braden, administrative assistant for the departments of English, Languages and Cultures, and Classical Studies, as well as managing editor of the New Orleans Review. Described as an excellent researcher, scrupulous about the details of her job, but calm in the face of crises, she was praised as an indispensable member of three departments. Her nomination letter, co-signed by more than 25 faculty members, said, “Ms. Braden has contributed to our departments and the college by creating a welcoming atmosphere for students and faculty while demonstrating the highest level of competence, responsibility, and dedication in her work.”