FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Susie P. Gonzalez

susie.gonzalez@trinity.edu

May 6, 2009

Trinity University Honors Dedicated Professors, Staff for Outstanding Teaching, Service, Scholarship

SAN ANTONIO – Outstanding members of the Trinity University faculty have been honored for distinguished achievement in service, teaching, advising, or research. The awards were announced May 1 by Trinity president John R. Brazil and the University’s Office of Academic Affairs.

Meredith McGuire, professor of sociology and anthropology, was recognized for outstanding scholarship and research. Mary Ann Tétreault, Cox Distinguished Professor of International Affairs, was lauded for her commitment and dedication to student advising. In addition, Richard Reams, assistant director of counseling services, received an award for distinguished university and community service.

Two junior faculty members – assistant professors Timothy O’Sullivan, classical studies, and Kathleen Surpless, geosciences – were cited for distinguished teaching and research.

Professor McGuire is an international authority in the sociology of religion and the sociology of health and illness. She began her research career by applying ethnographic methods to the study of Catholics who engaged in Pentecostal-style prayer practices. In recent years, she has also focused on non-medical healing practices among affluent and well-educated suburbanites. She has written five books, edited three volumes, and published dozens of articles in leading scholarly journals. Her most recent book, Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life, explores the eclectic and highly personal ways in which individual persons make sense of religious commitment. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Institute for Mental Health, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has held a number of leadership positions in professional societies, including president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Students advised by Professor Tétreault give her glowing testimonials for helping them gain self confidence and reach their fullest potential. One student praised “her patience, energy, enthusiasm, and sage advice” and said when students share stories, each can claim “a special moment, opportunity, or even epiphany that came about because of her counsel.” Professor Tétreault draws “deep enjoyment that comes from watching a person travel the last few steps between adolescence and adulthood” and says she encourages students “to do what they love because they’ll be better at it.” She also encourages students to look at different education and career options because there is no one perfect way. Saying that advising is not a one-way relationship, she often relies upon graduates for feedback about internships, graduate programs, jobs, and lessons they wish they had learned as students. “This is because I think that we never outgrow our need for thoughtful advice from people we love who also care about us.”

Dr. Reams has made significant contributions beyond his official duties as a member of the Counseling Services staff. He regularly surveys the health behaviors of Trinity students, with an emphasis on students’ use of alcohol and other drugs, and reports his findings to the campus community. His research challenges the common overestimates of student use of alcohol and other drugs, and it helps faculty members and Trinity staff members understand what students face in their daily lives. He also has initiated a significant outreach to sexual minority students, including those who are gay, lesbian, and bisexual. Additionally, he has taught courses on this topic and collaborated with academic departments to organize guest lectures. In the San Antonio community, he has educated local psychologists on these issues in continuing education seminars offered through the Bexar County Psychological Association, and to psychology residents at Brooke Army Medical Center and at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Professor O’Sullivan has developed a superb record of teaching and research. He offers a wide range of classes in the languages and cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, and he enlivens these classes with a rich combination of visual imagery and textual evidence. His research combines urban studies, visual culture, and social history, focusing on the culture of walking in ancient Rome. He has four articles published or forthcoming in leading journals, and his book manuscript has been solicited by Cambridge University Press. He was an alternate for a Fellowship in Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., and one of four finalists for the Rome Prize awarded by the American Academy in Rome. While on academic leave in 2007-08, he received a fellowship from Harvard’s Loeb Classical Library Foundation to support his research and writing. At Trinity, he has served on the Faculty Senate and as the departmental representative for the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome.

Professor Surpless taught exceptionally well in a wide variety of courses, including a First-Year Seminar titled “Climate Change: The Planet Earth Experience,” a class that views this topic by exploring the interaction of science, politics, and economics. Her research focuses on the evolution of sedimentary basins in the Cordilleran mountain belt of the western United States and Canada. She has co-authored six articles in scholarly journals and given numerous conference presentations. Her teaching and research have been supported by grants from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund, the Sherman-Fairchild Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Associated Colleges of the South. She is frequently asked to review grant proposals for the National Science Foundation and was recently invited to join the Editorial Board of the journal Geology. In 2006, she was elected to serve as a Geosciences Councilor for the national Council on Undergraduate Research, an honor that recognizes “leadership in conducting, promoting, and/or supporting undergraduate research.”

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