2025

January 23, 2025

Faculty Honored at December Commencement

During December’s commencement ceremonies, three WCU College of Arts and Humanities faculty were recognized for their excellence in the classroom and beyond.

In addition, Dr. Jessica Sowa, assistant professor of biology in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, was recognized with the Campus Diversity Award for her outstanding contributions to the spirit of diversity on the University campus. In her lab, she and students research host-virus interactions using the model nematode C. elegans. She has been conducting research with nematodes for more than 10 years. She also directs and is primary investigator for the Nematode Hunters outreach program. Dr. Sowa joined the University faculty in 2019.

Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching

Dr. Jelena Colovic-Markovic, associate professor of languages and cultures, was awarded the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching in recognition of her outstanding service in stimulating and guiding the intellectual development of WCU students.

Dr. Colovic-Markovic is director of the master of arts and certificate programs in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She trains teacher candidates to successfully work with ESL students in a variety of U.S. and international educational contexts, such as K-12 classrooms, adult education, intensive English programs, and higher education. Dr. Colovic-Markovic’s scholarship, motivated in part by her personal experiences in learning English as an additional language, focuses on TESOL teacher education, the knowledge and teaching of L2 vocabulary, and service-learning. The program enables students’ autonomy in designing and delivering their own instruction and provides experience in placement and needs assessment. The program supports students by securing field placements and assists in resume development.

Dr. Colovic-Markovic joined the University faculty in 2013.

Since 1961, the Lindback Foundation has made grants in support of the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award to colleges and universities primarily in the Greater Delaware Valley area.

Distinguished Research Award

Dr. Jea Sophia Oh, professor of philosophy, was presented with the Distinguished Research Award for her outstanding achievements in scholarly work over multiple years in religious studies, Asian philosophy, and ecofeminism, including public lectures, peer-reviewed articles, and books.

Dr. Oh specializes in Asian and comparative theology and philosophy, environmental ethics, religion and ecology, as well as feminist and postcolonial theory. Her first book A Postcolonial Theology of Life: Planetarity East and West (Sopher Press 2011) is a path-making work in Korean ecofeminist theology and comparative philosophy. Dr. Oh has edited and co-authored Nature’s Transcendence and Immanence: A Comparative Interdisciplinary Ecstatic Naturalism (2017), Suffering and Evil in Nature: Comparative Responses from Ecstatic Naturalism and Healing Cultures (2021), Emotions (Jeong/Qing 情) in Korean Philosophy and Religion (2022). Most recently, she co-edited Greening Philosophy of Religion: Process, Ecology, and Ethics (2024), which offers radical hope and a sober vision for realizing a more sustainable planetary economy that places a high value on food sovereignty, an ethic of trust, and inter-religious conversations.

She is an elected board member of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (SACP), chair of the Central Division, as well as chair of the International Society of Chinese Philosophy (ISCP) at the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association (APA). Additionally, she chairs the Society for the Study of Process Philosophy (SSPP) at the APA, covering all three divisions.

Dr. Oh joined the University faculty in 2015.

Council of Trustees Achievement Award

Dr. Gloria Maité Hernández, associate professor of languages and cultures, was presented with the University’s Council of Trustees Achievement Award.

Dr. Hernández’s research focuses on literature and religion. In the last 10 years, she has presented her work at major international conferences in Spain, India, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, and at different venues in the United States. She was invited to be a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of World Religions in Harvard University for one year.

Dr. Hernández has published articles in renowned journals, coauthored a book, and written two monographs. Her first scholarly book, titled Savoring God. Comparative Theopoetics, was published by Oxford University Press in 2021 and was co-winner of the 2022 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies from the American Academy of Religion. The book is a literary and theological comparison of a Spanish mystical poem and an Indian poem in Sanskrit. Her writing has been described as “meticulous, in-depth, gorgeous, and direct.”

Her research interests include Iberian Medieval and Early Modern mystical literature, narrative, and poetry; traditions of translation; Indian mystical literature; comparative literature; comparative religion; Cuban literature of the exile in the 19th and 20th centuries; Cuban contemporary theater; and creative writing in Spanish.

Dr. Hernández joined the University faculty in 2011.