University Award for Recent Achievement in Scholarship for 2011
Fabio Lopez-Lazaro
Fabio has produced an extraordinary body of excellent scholarship over the last five years: two important books, five major articles, and many more reviews, shorter articles, and scholarly papers delivered around the world. His wide-ranging and meticulously researched works deal with law, ethnobotany, history, gender, early modern political theory, and pirates. His range of thematic concerns parallels his cultural and linguistic interests: eight research languages, archival work all over the world, and recent conference presentations in London, Spain, Morocco and Holland. His most recent book represents an extraordinary scholarly breakthrough. Through painstaking archival sleuthing, our colleague overturned 400 years of “common knowledge” as he discovered solid evidence that a work which for centuries has been presumed to be a novel is in fact an historical text about an historical figure. The resulting study has already begun to have a significant impact on his and related fields as scholars now rethink earlier analyses and assumptions about the (now) non-fiction narrative, The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez. His earlier (2008) book on Crime in Early Bourbon Madrid (1700-1808) is a huge study of thousands of law cases, again, unearthed in the archives. Five major articles in well-placed journals, along with two new book projects now in the archival research phase round out his extraordinary accomplishments.
University Award for Recent Achievement in Scholarship for 2010
Michelle Oberman
This year’s recipient of the Award for Recent Achievement in Scholarship joined the faculty in 2004 and quickly became one of the university’s most prolific and influential scholars. Since 2005, our honoree has authored one book, five law review articles, two chapters, and two other pieces in interdisciplinary journals. When she wasn’t writing she was traveling and speaking: she presented more than 35 academic presentations around the world. She is perhaps the nation’s leading expert on how the law regulates the harm parents may do to their children. Readers describe her book as completely original, compelling, and interdisciplinary. It received the “Outstanding Book of the Year Award” from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in 2008. Her colleagues call her work “remarkable” and “inspiring,” noting the way she takes unusual risks—for example by incorporating perspectives from anthropology and creative writing—so that she can offer legal scholars new and unusual insights.
University Award for Recent Achievement in Scholarship for 2009
Michelle Marvier
This year’s recipient of the Award for Recent Achievement in Scholarship is a scholar whose work combines scientific rigor with relevance to pressing social and environmental issues. She has published 19 articles in the last five years, including three in the premier scientific journal, Science. She has been invited to give talks at leading universities and conferences around the world. Her work, in the areas of conservation biology and environmental risk assessment, has provided solid scientific analysis to inform public discourse on sustainability policies and issues, while at the same time adding to the body of scientific knowledge. An exemplary teaching scholar, the recipient has collaborated with undergraduate researchers on many of her publications. She has played a leading role in the development of Santa Clara’s Environmental Studies Institute, a key element of the University’s mission to foster education in service of a more just and sustainable future.
2010 - Michelle Oberman
2009 - Michelle Marvier
2008 - Sunwolf
2007 - Sanjiv Das
2006 - Michael Carassco(Chemistry)
2005 - Tom Plante (Psychology)
2004 - Tim Urdan (Psychology)
2003 - J. David Pleins (Religious Studies)
2002 - Nam Ling (Computer Engineering)
2001 - June Carbone (Law)
2000 - John Hawley (English)
