Graduate Spotlight: 2010 Diversity Awards
Faculty Diversity Award — Dr. John Carroll
Dr. John Carroll, a professor in UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, has taught courses on wildlife conservation and quantitative methods around the world, including Thailand, Cyprus, and China, among other countries. During his worldwide travels, he has convinced many international students to attend UGA. He strives to introduce international students to new research methods and wildlife management techniques. Subsequently, he and his students have studied wildlife populations from Sierra Leone to Indonesia. Over the past 10 years, he has advised 43 graduate students while participating on more than 30 graduate committees.
Diversity Research Scholarship — Matthew Goren
Matthew Goren tries to uncover the underlying sources of behavioral and attitudinal reactions to diversity. He approaches his research using a varied mix of psychology, blending social psychology with neuroscience and organizational psychology. With his dissertation research, Goren plans to examine if the basis for racial color-blindness can predict attitudes toward diversity. His research would explore the social psychological roots behind the ideology and formation of color-blindness. The scholarship will provide Goren with $1,500 to support his study of diversity, prejudice and racial identity.
Graduate Student Diversity Engagement Award — Fuad Elhage
Fuad Elhage received a Diversity Engagement Award for his use of Latin dance to encourage community interaction. Elhage employs Latin dance as a method to overcome cultural barriers across age and ethnic groups. He teaches Latin dance at the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute’s summer workshops and has opened the Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education with his dance program for five consecutive years. He also founded the UGA Tango Club. Outside of his UGA activities, Elhage brought Latin dance to elementary schoolchildren by giving lessons on International Day, on Cinco de Mayo and during Hispanic heritage month.
Graduate Student Diversity Engagement Award — Judith Oliver
Judith Oliver, a linguistics doctoral student, received a Diversity Engagement Award for her involvement and activism at the university on behalf of the deaf community. She expanded the understanding of deaf culture and language at UGA when she convinced the university to recognize American Sign Language as a foreign language. Oliver invites deaf community members to actively work alongside students in introductory ASL classes. Additionally, Oliver organizes campus events to promote awareness of deaf culture. She has also collaborated with Multiple Choices Independent Living Center in Athens to offer ASL classes to community members.
