Matz, Seltzer Receive Award for Excellence in Teaching

October 07, 1999

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By Ken Gewertz
Gazette Staff

Two Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) junior faculty members have received the Roslyn Abramson Award, given each year to recognize excellence in teaching.

Jesse Matz, assistant professor of English and American literature and language, and Margo Seltzer, associate professor of computer science on the Gordon McKay owment, each receives $4,500, a sum that is int ed to help faculty members with either research or course development. Recipients of the award are selected by the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

"I am very pleased that the Roslyn Abramson Award allows us to recognize professors Margo Seltzer and Jesse Matz for their excellence and sensitivity in teaching undergraduates," said FAS Dean Jeremy Knowles. "Their fields are far apart, but they bring to computer operating systems and to the English modern novel an exemplary commitment to their students that is the essence of good teaching in any discipline."

Matz said he found the award "particularly gratifying" as a teacher of the humanities. "It’s very difficult to measure success in this field, so to get objective affirmation really helps," he said.

As a specialist in 19th- and 20th- century British and American fiction, Matz said that he often approaches teaching as a form of research, an effort to discover the cultural relevance of teaching literature and to find the balance between tradition and change in the literary canon.

Matz said the award has allowed him to take a leave this term and to develop his Ph.D. dissertation, an exploration of Impressionism in fiction, into a book. He has also begun a new research project on the relation between time and narration.

Seltzer said that she was pleasantly surprised by the award, which she first learned about when a colleague sent her a congratulatory e-mail.

"I love teaching," she said. "That’s why I’m at a university instead of a research lab. I think awards that recognize good teaching are wonderful."

Seltzer said that her award money will go into the departmental research account and will help to buy new equipment, pay salaries for summer research assistants, and allow students to att conferences.