Professor of Theatre Diane Timmerman, Clarence Efroymson Chair/Professor of Economics Peter Grossman, and Professor of Political Science Margaret Brabant will receive the 2014 Butler University Distinguished Faculty Awards during Spring Commencement on May 10.
“Any time a faculty member is recognized for an award, it is special,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Kate Morris. “What makes this honor even more special is the fact that candidates are nominated by their faculty peers, and a committee of faculty peers selected the award winners from a strong pool of nominees.”
The three faculty members will each receive a recognition plaque and a professional development stipend.
Diane Timmerman, MFA
Timmerman will be honored with the University Award for Distinguished Teaching, which celebrates faculty who have demonstrated outstanding effort, accomplishment, and dedicated service to Butler students’ best educational interests.
For the past 20 years, Timmerman has taught a wide range of courses in acting and voice for the actor for Butler theatre majors and in the Core Curriculum. She is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, one of about 150 certified teachers in the world.
She administers the Christel DeHaan Visiting International Theatre Artist program at Butler, complementing her love of learning and teaching about international theatre practices. She taught on the spring 2010 voyage for the Semester at Sea program.
The Producing Artistic Director of the Heartland Actors’ Repertory Theatre (HART), Timmerman produces the popular free Shakespeare program in Indianapolis’s White River State Park. Nine Butler students will intern for HART this summer.
She is also an active professional actress. Her HART credits include Emilia (Othello), Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), and Nerissa (Merchant of Venice). She has acted in many Phoenix Theatre productions, including Rancho Mirage, August: Osage County, Next Fall, November, Bug, and Beautiful Thing.
Timmerman appeared with the Human Race Theatre Company in Ohio in Spinning Into Butter and Beautiful Thing; at Indiana Repertory Theatre in Angel Street; and on numerous Chicago stages. Her commercial and film roles include Amanda for Adrenaline Motion Pictures and The Package with Gene Hackman.
Peter Z. Grossman, PhD
Grossman will receive the University Award for Distinguished Research, Scholarship, or Creative Work. This is the highest accolade a faculty member can receive that honors her or his body of substantial scholarly achievement accomplished as a faculty member of Butler University.
Grossman has held the Clarence Efromyson Chair since joining the COB faculty in 1994. He has taught 13 different Butler courses, of which he created five and revived several others that had not been offered for years.
He was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Houston (UH) in 2012 and is currently a Research Associate of the Hobby Center for Public Policy at UH.
Grossman has published more than 200 works, including articles for both scholarly and general publications, and numerous commentaries published in, among many others, the Wall Street Journal and the Christian Science Monitor.
He is the author or editor of seven books, covering a range of topics from U.S. business history to the intersection of law and economics, and, most especially, the history and economics of energy and public policy. His latest book, U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure (Cambridge University Press, 2013) is an analytic history of American energy policy.
In the early 1990s, he was a Research Associate at the Center for the Study of American Business directed by the late Murray Weidenbaum, who had been Chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors.
Margaret Brabant, PhD
Brabant will receive the University Award for Distinguished Faculty Service and Leadership, which honors a faculty member whose service has improved the University or the wider community through professional service.
In 1996, Brabant founded Butler University’s Center for Citizenship and Community (CCC) and served as its director for a decade. She developed and coordinated service-learning opportunities for faculty, students, staff, and community members and oversaw the development of dozens of interdisciplinary and inter-college service-learning courses.
She has published works on the service-learning pedagogy, medieval political philosophy, and feminist thought. Her scholarly and teaching interests converge in her concern to help develop a more informed and involved citizenry
Brabant joined the Butler faculty in 1991 and continues to serve the University and support civic engagement efforts through her roles as an Indianapolis Community Requirement Fellow, her work on the Faculty Development Committee, and her tenure as chair of Butler’s Faculty Senate (2010-2014). She has been an Indiana Campus Compact Senior Fellow and is a member of the inaugural class of fellows of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement.
In 2013, Butler awarded Brabant a Global Initiatives Foreign Language Enhancement Grant to study at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her other awards include, in 2014, the Mortar Board LAS Professor of the Year and selection to deliver “The Last Lecture,” and in 2013, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Annual Award
Media contact: Mary Ellen Stephenson
317-940-6944
mestephe@butler.edu
