Evidence of Experience

Excellence, innovation, risk-taking, and professional distinction in their creative endeavors and scholarship. These are among the characteristics Columbia College expects of its faculty.

Distinguished Faculty Fellows 2006-07

The Distinguished College Artist, Distinguished College Scholar, Distinguished College Teacher, and
Critical Encounters Fellow are faculty who embody these qualities. This year, four outstanding faculty members were chosen to receive this recognition, and were offered time and support to advance their own art, teaching, and scholarship. Their individual achievements and engagement in turn enhance the intellectual and creative culture of our entire college community.

	Distinguished College Artist Barbara Kasten Faculty, Department of Photography Throughout her artistic career, Barbara Kasten has infused her photography with qualities influenced by the Bauhaus and Constructivism, architecture, film, and theater. Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States, Europe, and Japan, and is in the collections of major museums around the world. She has been honored with National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright-Hays, and Guggenheim fellowships. She spent her year as Distinguished College Artist “creating a huge, new body of work that I never would have been able to complete otherwise.”
	Distinguished College Scholar Stephen Asma Faculty, Department of Liberal Education In the best tradition of the public intellectual, Stephen Asma’s scholarship ranges from philosophy to the history of science. A prolific and engaging writer, he has authored four books, the most recent being The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered Buddha. Asma spent his year as Distinguished College Scholar traveling, writing, and securing a deal for his fifth book, On Monsters: an Unnatural History, to be published by Oxford University Press. “I’ve been able to focus my research and writing in ways that would have been impossible without the award,” says Asma.
	Distinguished College Teacher Chap Freeman Faculty, Department of Film and Video The breadth and depth of Chap Freeman’s work as a teacher is extraordinary, from developing curricula across multiple concentrations in the film department to leading The Visions Project, which comprises 39 films created by students through workshops conducted in 13 countries. During his year as Distinguished College Teacher, Freeman has worked as North American Representative to the Executive Council of CILECT (Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision), the global organization of film and television schools. “These efforts are extensions of what I’ve learned about teaching since the early 1970s,” says Freeman, “and I’m grateful for the chance to step outward in these ways.”
	Critical Encounters Fellow Amy Hawkins Faculty, Department of English The definition of an interdisciplinary scholar, Amy Hawkins holds a B.A. in American Culture, an M.A. in Popular Culture, and a Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric. In her roles as both scholar and teacher, Hawkins merges these interests, regarding the work of writing not only as a means of communication but as active cultural participation. As Critical Encounters Fellow, Hawkins guided the collaborative, college-wide effort to address the complexities of issues surrounding HIV/AIDS from multiple perspectives. “I’ve always been convinced that there could be a strong relationship between the community and the academy,” says Hawkins. “For me, this has been a year of truly deepening my understanding of the profound relationship between art and activism.”