Michele Moses, associate dean for graduate studies in the School of Education, has been awarded the 2016 Hazel Barnes Prize, the most distinguished award a faculty member can receive from the university. She is also the first education faculty member to receive the award.
Since 1992, the has been awarded each year to a CU Boulder faculty member who best exemplifies the enriching interrelationship between teaching and research, and whose work has had a significant impact on students, faculty, colleagues and the university.
鈥淧rofessor Moses is a sought-after expert on questions of democracy, equality and race in education,鈥� Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano said. 鈥淣ot only does she bring sound research and sage insights to these vital issues, she puts her students at the center of all she does. She is a valued teacher, mentor and advisor to education students at CU Boulder. I congratulate her on being duly recognized by this prestigious honor.鈥�
The prize includes a $20,000 cash award and an engraved university medal. The medal will be presented at the spring commencement. Moses also will be recognized at a reception in the fall that will include former Hazel Barnes Prize recipients, family members, colleagues and students.
Moses is a philosopher of education centrally concerned with education policy, and the prize was established in 1991 in honor of renowned philosophy Professor Emerita Hazel Barnes, who taught at CU Boulder from 1943 to 1986.听
For Moses, the award isn鈥檛 just about her.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a testament to the mission of the School of Education and how committed we are, as researchers and scholars, to our students and our teaching,鈥� Moses said. 鈥淚鈥檓 certainly not the only one who works hard and purposefully to integrate research, scholarship, teaching and mentoring. It鈥檚 close to our hearts and very much a part of our mission in this school. It reflects all of us.鈥�
Moses found her passion for education early in life. As the first of her family to attend and graduate from college, Moses immersed herself in the experience by getting involved with various clubs on campus, including student leadership.
She was awarded a master鈥檚 degree in philosophy and a doctoral degree in education from CU Boulder. She also received a master鈥檚 degree in higher education from the University of Vermont. Moses worked for six years at Arizona State University as an assistant professor, eventually being asked to join our CU Boulder faculty. Her research focuses on the powerful interconnections between questions of democracy, equality and race in education.
Moses鈥檚 devotion to integrating student mentorship within her research is one reason she was nominated by her peers - and chosen by the Hazel Barnes committee - as this year鈥檚 awardee. In one example, she worked with a variety of people, including some of her graduate students, on a two-year research project in 2008 examining a ban on affirmative action in Colorado that voters rejected.
鈥淚t was an opportunity for mentoring and collaborating with my students, while integrating my discipline of philosophy into survey analysis, community dialogues and interviews of study participants,鈥� Moses said. 鈥淚t also allowed my students to experience a research project from inception to completion鈥攊ncluding funding, researching, presenting and publishing.鈥�
In the true spirit of the Hazel Barnes Prize, Moses鈥檚 recently published book, Living with Moral Disagreement: The Enduring Controversy about Affirmative Action, includes a chapter that she co-authored with two CU Boulder doctoral students, Lauren Saenz and Amy Farley Lobue.
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Read the original announcement in CU Boulder Today.听
Related Faculty: Michele S. Moses