The annual Shatter Awards will take place on April 19th at 7 P.M. in Hark South, with a reception to follow. Everyone is welcome to attend.
The Shatter the Ceiling Committee hopes to recognize inclusive dialogue in the classroom, lectures that address social justice issues, providing mentorship to students from all walks of life, and accessibility through presenting these awards to professors who have demonstrated these qualities to many students, who subsequently voted for them.
“It’s really easy to lose track of professors who are doing this really phenomenal work in areas that it’s really important to improve and continually work on to make the law school even better than it is now,” said Marina Shkuratov ’18, an event chair for the Shatter Awards.
Winning is based solely on nominations from students with no multiple winners allowed. Several professors were nominated by a number of students.
“I think it shows that there are some people who really focus their work here on issues that the Shatter Awards mean to celebrate, which is phenomenal, but we also wanted to make sure that other professors who got a tremendous number of votes in a certain category were also recognized for doing fantastic work,” said Shkuratov.
For professors who care about these issues, winning such an award brings a unique opportunity for recognition.
“I think having an emphasis on inclusivity as well as trying to bring in some of the elements that aren’t gonna be directly in the classroom, like mentoring or doing a really good job of facilitating difficult conversations, that has a different focus from the Student Government Awards,” said Mollie Swears ’18, an event chair for the Shatter Awards.
The event itself will recognize professors with a personal touch. A student will give introductory remarks for each professor based on their personal experiences with them and positive feedback from the nominations themselves.
“We’re excited that we’ve heard back from some of the professors, and they’re planning to be there, so I think it should be a really good time,” said Swears.
The winning professors have responded well to this positive recognition from their students.
“They really are genuinely excited to receive these awards, and honored by it, and happy that people have noticed the great work that they’re doing,” said Shkuratov.
The winners are as follows:
D. James Greiner – Excellence in Mentorship
Jon D. Hanson – Excellence in Integrating Social Justice
Catharine A. MacKinnon – Excellence in Promoting Gender Equality
Khiara M. Bridges – Excellence in Promoting Racial Equality
Alex Whiting & Douglas NeJaime ’03 – Excellence in Engaging Students in Difficult Conversations