By Sheri Alzeerah
Photo by Rick Patrick
And the winners are…
Shirley E. Thompson, Ph.D
“Exiles at Home: The Struggle to Become American in Creole New Orleans”
Associate Professor, Department of American Studies, Center for African and African American Studies & Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, College of Liberal Arts
Runners-Up:
Oscar G. Brockett, Ph.D
Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus, Department of Theatre and Dance, College of Fine Arts
Huaiyin Li, Ph.D
Associate Professor, Department of History & Department of Asian Studies, College of Liberal Arts
Robin D. Moore, Ph.D
Professor, School of Music, College of Fine Arts
Richard R. Valencia, Ph.D
Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education
University Co-op Fine Arts Award:
Teresa Hubbard, MA
Associate Professor, Department of Art and Art History, College of Fine Arts
Best Research Paper Award:
Marie H. Monfils
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts
Career Research Excellence Award:
Toyin Falola, Ph.D
Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of History & Center for African and African
American Studies, College of Liberal Arts
An infectious smile stretched from one round cheek to the other for an entire ballroom of professors, deans and University officials to see. Standing tall, dressed to the nines in a plaid button-down, Solomon Marshall was the happiest man in the room, clapping fervently along with his fellow audience members, a crowd of nearly 230 attendees.
Granted, his date had just won the $10,000 grand prize at the 14th Annual University Co-op Robert W. Hamilton Book Awards.
An occasion like this only comes once in a lifetime – even if that lifetime has barely begun, as is the case for 5-year-old Marshall. He craned his neck as he stood on a chair to peer at his mother, Shirley E. Thompson, when she accepted her award.
Although he may not have grasped the breadth of the prize, Marshall certainly understood one thing: This event was a celebration.
Presented by the University Co-operative Society, the Hamilton Book Awards celebrates the great minds behind the University of Texas. The University is much more than an educator. It’s a researcher. It’s a paradigm-shifter. It’s a groundbreaker. It’s the launching pad for scholars, artists and students on a mission to warrant the slogan and change the world.
In recognition of faculty on the vanguard of outstanding research and publications, the Hamilton Book Awards on Oct. 20 honored the University’s scope of expertise. Populating the Four Seasons Hotel Ballroom with many of the University’s prized professors, college deans, UT officials, Co-op representatives and beaming family members, the affair upheld its reputation as a night of elegance and excellence.
Along with the Robert W. Hamilton Book Awards that include four runners-up and one grand-prize winner, the Co-op grants a Fine Arts Award, Career Research Excellence Award and Best Research Paper Award during the ceremony.
Oscar Brockett with Dean Doug Dempster Photo by Rick Patrick
The reception area, lined with poster-sized book jackets of each nominated work, teemed with talent as nominees congregated before the ceremony began shortly after 6 p.m.
The night started off on the right note with a musical performance by DaXun Zhang, double bassist and music professor, and Tomoko Kashiwagi, pianist and graduate student. After the performance and opening remarks, guests dined on three-course meals, flipped through 106-page programs created by the Co-op’s new book machine and mingled with colleagues across disciplines.
“This evening is dedicated to the entire UT faculty — a group of extraordinarily gifted individuals,” said Michael Granof, chairperson of the University Co-op Board of Directors and host for the evening, in his opening remarks. “When you walk through that outside lobby and view the covers of books that have been written in a single year, you realize how accomplished we are as a faculty.”
“It’s not a book that starts with the hardened argument and then tries to prove that argument, but it’s a book that looks at paradoxes that characterize American culture and traces those out,” Thompson said. “It taught me how to honor messiness as a methodological approach.”
Thompson’s book went to the press after the Co-op provided her with a subvention grant. This year marks Thompson’s first year to attend the Hamilton Book Awards.
“It was really great to have people acknowledge the hard work that goes into everyone’s book projects at this institution,” Thompson said. “It felt like the Oscars in a way because we didn’t know who was going to win.”
While her husband was teaching that night, Thompson’s son served as her +1.
“I thought, well if I take him, he’ll be there and I won’t have to make dinner that night,” Thompson said. “But also, he’s what’s really important to me in life. [I thought], if I don’t end up getting a prize, at least I have my son there to experience the night with me and remind me of what’s important.”
But as Granof began describing the winning book in his presentation of the grand prize, the result became clear. To Thompson, the award is an honor and an affirmation that people care about U.S. and African American history and find stories of people grappling with race, language and culture instructive.
Four runners-up received $3,000 each. Richard Valencia, professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, was a runner-up for his book “Chicano Students and the Courts: The Mexican American Legal Struggle for Educational Equality.”
“I’m so appreciative being in a flagship university like UT where we have so many skilled people across the disciplines — from astronomy to history to zoology, it’s just tremendous,” Valencia said.
With winners whose expertise runs from music to psychology, the range of knowledge at the University was apparent at the ceremony.
“We make it into a contest, but what we’re really trying to do is make a statement that faculty, research and scholarship are important and should be honored,” Granof said.
UT President William Powers, Dr. Toyin Falola, Dean Randy Diehl Photo by Rick Patrick
As UT President William Powers said in his speech, the Hamilton Book Awards celebrates scholarship.
“These are the people that make this great University – the people that are doing the work that this University was set out to do,” Powers said. “Just the breadth of the subjects, the depth of the knowledge, the expertise that’s representative of this room — this is one prong of what we do.”
Named in honor of a past chairperson of the University Co-op Board of Directors, the Hamilton Book Awards have recognized faculty with a passion for innovative research and knowledge since 1997. The awards are the brainchild of George Mitchell, president and CEO of the University Co-op, the nation’s largest seller of textbooks and most profitable independent college bookstore with 100 percent of profits benefitting the University.
Hulan Swain, assistant to Mitchell and secretary to the Co-op, plans the award ceremony months in advance, booking the hotel space, coordinating with University officials, putting together programs, creating posters and tweaking the finest details to make a grand evening.
“Basically, in just one evening you can hear about all the different projects and achievements in this University,” Swain said.
Mitchell said the best part of the evening is seeing the faculty members’ excitement when they win.
“Many of them have won national awards, but they feel this one is the one that they want the most because they’re being judged by their peers,” he said.
Authors nominate their publications by submitting a nomination form, two copies of their book and two copies of their current CV to the Office of the Vice President for Research. From there, the decision is in the hands of the Hamilton Book Awards Review Committee, a rotating team of nearly a dozen faculty members from different disciplines.
This year, 70 books were nominated. In a four-step process that divides up the works and weeds out the pool to a manageable number, the committee reads and re-reads the books to decide on the winners. About 10 books make it to the final selection pool. At that point, every book is read by every committee member. The winners are not contingent upon one person’s preferences, but the group’s collective opinion, said Al Bovik, committee chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Because the books span such a broad spectrum of fields and topics, the committee has no definitive criteria to rate the nominations. Still, Bovik, an avid book collector, uses a certain set of guidelines to judge the works, including quality of writing, originality, relevance and perhaps most importantly, the impact on the field in which the book was written.
“The most important thing for me was [that] the book 10 years from now would still be regarded as an exciting book in its own field,” Bovik said.
Thompson’s book is well written, descriptive, colorful and timeless, Bovik said.
Although Thompson’s colleagues and supporters commend her academic research, expertise and scholarly talent, Thompson has something else in mind when it comes to the award. With her prize money, she plans on paving part of her backyard for a basketball hoop for her No. 1 fan, Solomon Marshall.