Doctoral Alumna Wins Prestigious Teaching Award at Syracuse University's iSchool
August 24, 2009
 Barbara Kwasnik, a professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, was named the 2009 University Scholar / Teacher of the Year at the university in New York State.
An expert in classification research, Kwasnik earned her Ph.D. from the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers in 1989. Her dissertation was titled “The Influence of Context on Classificatory Behavior” and her adviser was James D. Anderson. "Barbara Kwasnik has an innate gift for qualitative research," said School of Communication and Information Professor Nicholas Belkin, who worked with Kwasnik on her dissertation and for whom Kwasnik served as research assistant. "Her dissertation was concerned with how, and why, people organize their personal information...This was one of the most interesting dissertation projects that I have worked on." Kwasnik has been an internationally recognized leader in the field of classification research for many years. Drawing on the disciplines of anthropology, sociology of science, and cognitive psychology, as well as studies of human-computer interaction, Kwasnik has explored many different aspects of this fundamental area in the field of information science. “Barbara’s teaching record is as positive as it could possibly be,” said iSchool Dean Elizabeth D. Liddy as reported in the school’s “Home Page” newsletter. “It does not matter whether the population consists of undergraduates, master’s students, or doctoral students; it does not matter at all whether the class size is large or small; the student evaluation scores are in the very top tier, and the free form comments are overwhelmingly grateful and enthusiastic.” On the faculty at Syracuse since 1987, Kwasnik has served as director of the Ph.D program and the M.S. in Library and Information Science program. She was named ASIST Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2002.
|
