Three faculty fellows of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies have been recognized with University of Notre Dame awards for the 2022-23 academic year.
Jennifer Huynh
Assistant Professor of American Studies
Professor Huynh received the Grenville Clark Award, which is given to a faculty member or administrator whose voluntary activities serve to advance the cause of peace and human rights.
Citation: The Grenville Clark Award is given to a faculty member or administrator whose voluntary activities serve to advance the cause of peace and human rights. Jennifer Huynh is an educator and researcher whose life inside and outside of the classroom work together for the common good.
Her students benefit from her deep connections to the South Bend community, particularly as a board member with the Neighbor to Neighbor organization, which aims to support the resettlement of local refugees. Her work fostering the organization’s core value of intercultural friendships—focusing on connecting refugees and immigrants to people in the South Bend area to be community liaisons—is admirable.
Additionally, with State Representative Maureen Bauer, she gathered evidence and data to advocate for the right to health care for asylum seekers and lawfully permanent residents in Indiana. She also volunteers her time assisting with asylum refugee cases. As the daughter of refugees herself, her voluntary activities, research, and advocacy advance the cause of peace and human rights in the South Bend community and beyond.
Anton Juan
Professor of Film, Television, and Theatre
Professor Juan received the Reinhold Niebuhr Award, which is given annually to a faculty member or administrator whose body of academic work and life promote or exemplify the area of social justice in modern life.
Citation: The Reinhold Niebuhr Award honors a faculty member or administrator whose body of academic work and life promote and exemplify social justice. Anton Juan’s sustained commitment as a creative playwright, theater director, and filmmaker is marked by a passionate belief that art is a means to challenge inequality and advocate for social justice. His work speaks with, and on behalf of, marginalized individuals and communities, those in need, and spaces that are often ignored.
"From stage to film, he consistently calls out political, economic, and climate violence, elevates the voices of the poor and vulnerable across the planet, and shows a deep and profound commitment to social justice and Catholic social teaching. His life and body of academic work are a public witness of Christ’s invitation to love our neighbors as we are loved by God. His work demands the best of all of us to seek to redress these injustices as he does so fully in his public and private life, marshaling funds, raising social awareness, and providing humanitarian assistance many times over.
Kevin Walsh
Associate Teaching Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
Professor Walsh received an Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, which honors faculty members who have had a profound influence on the undergraduate learning experience.
Description: The Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (formerly the Kaneb Teaching Award) annually honors up to 20 faculty members who have had a profound influence on the undergraduate learning experience, elevated students’ intellectual engagement, and fostered students’ ability to express themselves effectively within a disciplinary context.