Namiko Kunimoto, assistant professor of history of art, has been awarded the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, which annually recognizes a maximum of 10 faculty members for their teaching excellence.

 

Students, faculty and alumni may nominate faculty for this award; and a committee of students, previous recipients and alumni choose the recipients. 

 

"At every opportunity, [Professor Kunimoto] has shown that she is a caring person with compassion toward everyone around her from the classroom, to the campus, to the greater community," one of Kunimoto's students wrote. "Her insistence on breaking through cognitive barriers and pushing her students to a higher level of achievement accelerated my growth in academics and in my personal life. Her influence was transformative during a time when I might have otherwise given up or settled for less."

 

Another student wrote, "It can be very difficult to those outside of academia to understand the various interests that compete for a faculty member's time. Research, advising graduate students, administrative activities and departmental duties can all affect the time a professor is able to devote to undergraduate teaching."

 

“As a student in Dr. Kunimoto's class, I always felt like learning was her priority."

 

Kunimoto and other award recipients will be recognized with a $5,000 honorarium, made possible by gifts from The Ohio State University Alumni Association, University Advancement and the Office of Academic Affairs. In addition, the Office of Academic Affairs awards an increase of $1,200 to each recipient’s base salary. Members are inducted into the Academy of Teaching.