On Sept. 10, Dean Barbara Schaal presented the annual Arts & Sciences faculty awards. This year's awardees were Stan Braude, Lerone Martin, Elizabeth Borgwardt, Steve Fazzari, and Adrienne Davis.
Over the course of nearly four decades on the faculty at Washington University, Steve Fazzari has taken on "a dizzying number" of leadership roles in Arts & Sciences. He has been on the Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee, the Advisory Committee on Tenure, Promotion, and Personnel, and the Arts & Sciences Academic Planning Committee, just to name a few. He also chaired the Department of Economics from 1999-2005 and has served as associate director of the Murray Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy since 2008. Most recently, Fazzari took on the daunting task of relaunching the Department of Sociology and serving as one of its first chairs. As his colleagues attest, Fazzari worked tirelessly in his efforts to recruit a stellar first cohort of sociology faculty and shape the direction of the new department. He has done all of this while remaining committed to his students and nationally recognized research program.
Numerous faculty members submitted enthusiastic and heartfelt statements of support for Fazzari's award. David Cunningham, professor and associate chair of sociology, wrote: "Speaking as the faculty member charged with filling Steve’s enormous shoes as the department’s next chair, I am both daunted by the dexterity with which he has managed the department and awed by the decency that characterizes every aspect of his work. Fortunately, I also have been – and will continue to be – buoyed by the mentorship he has unfailingly offered."
