2018 CLAS Outstanding Faculty Awardees

Robert W. Glover, Associate Professor of Political Science and Honors: CLAS Outstanding Faculty in Teaching and Advising
Michael J. Socolow, Associate Professor of Communication: Research and Creative Achievement
Liliana Herakova, Lecturer, Department of Communication and Journalism: Outstanding Lecturer
Cynthia Isenhour, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Climate Change: Service and Outreach

Robert glover

Robert W. Glover is Associate Professor of Political Science and Honors, a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and the Honors College. His research focuses on understanding the ways that active citizens can engage with the policy process and foster meaningful political change. In teaching students about public policy and political science, he wants his students to come away with not only a rich knowledge of the material, but also direct engagement in the policymaking process. Students learn about state politics by meticulously researching active legislation and meeting with Maine legislators to present evidence-based arguments for or against a bill. Students co-design intensive research projects that help nearby city and town officials better understand how to meet their residents’ needs, how to attract newcomers to their communities, or how to more effectively communicate important information with the public. Glover’s teaching and advising has resulted in national and international recognition for his remarkable dedication to student success. Since 2016, Glover has been an Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT) Faculty Fellow at the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University. Glover was one of only eight national finalists for the prestigious Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty, one of the 2015 Top 40 Under 40 Irish-Americans who has made a unique and important contribution to their professions and community, a recipient of a formal Legislative Sentiment by the Maine State Legislature for his public orientation in teaching and learning, and winner of the Harward Faculty Award for Service-Learning Excellence from Maine Campus Compact. 

michael socolow

In 2018, The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation and the Broadcast Education Association awarded Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism Michael J. Socolow the Broadcast Historian Award for his book Six Minutes in Berlin: Broadcast Spectacle and Rowing Gold at the Nazi Olympics. That work, lauded as a “masterpiece of sports journalism”, presents the broadcast of the victory of the United States rowing team at the 1936 Olympic Games as a case study to detail the origins of global sports broadcasting. A member of the Library of Congress’s Radio Preservation Task Force, Socolow’s radio history research has been widely recognized. His 2016 American Journalism article “‘A Nation-Wide Chain Within 60 Days’: Radio Network Failure in Early American Broadcasting,” won the 2016 Best Article Award from the American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA). Socolow’s scholarship debunking the famous “War of the Worlds” mass panic has been referenced in articles appearing in Time, Slate, National Geographic, and numerous newspapers and magazines around the world. In October, 2016, millions of American high school students were introduced to his “War of the Worlds” research when one of his essays (co-authored with Jefferson Pooley) was used by ETS for the reading comprehension section of the SAT exam. A former journalist for CNN, Socolow has a passion for bringing his media scholarship to the public. He’s written about broadcast regulation, social media, and media history for the New York Times, Washington Post, and numerous other national outlets.  His media criticism regularly appears in Columbia Journalism Review,Slate, and other publications. Socolow was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to the News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra (Australia) for spring 2019.

liliana herakova

Lily Herakova, Lecturer in Communication and Journalism, is committed to cultivating a passion for continuous learning and humanizing engagement with others. Her research, teaching, and creative explorations are interlinked and focus on ways in which communication makes belonging (im)possible as we navigate identities, relationships, and structures. Specifically, she focuses on communicative constructions and effects of belonging at the intersections of education, healthcare, and activism. At the University of Maine, this translates into teaching service learning classes such as Health Communication and Narrative, Performance, and Social Change. Nurtured by the contributions of creative and thoughtful students, colleagues, and community partners, her classes provide an opportunity to critically consider the challenges and possibilities of building more equitable and just social worlds. Herakova aims to move students to appreciate both learning and social change as on-going, complex, and relational processes that require intentional and critical reflection. She is responsible for coordinating her department’s graduate student teaching staff. This includes leading their orientation, teaching a pro-seminar, and conducting individual weekly meetings throughout the semester. She works directly with instructors to co-create and implement curriculum and teaching strategies for several different classes, including Storytelling, Public Speaking, and Interpersonal Communication. Herakova has the privilege of collaborating with talented and intelligent graduate students to bring fresh approaches and perspectives to classic and always timely communication skills. Her work with instructors is an appreciated reminder that pedagogical growth depends on continuous commitment to learning about learning and reflecting on the human connections that make learning possible in and outside of the classroom. In the words of one of her graduate students, “Lily inspires us to find our authentic identities as educators.”

cindy isenhour

Cindy Isenhour is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Climate Change, holding cooperating appointments in the School of Economics and the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. She seamlessly fuses her research, teaching, and service commitments to reduce energy and materials use in production-consumption-disposal systems. Shortly after joining the faculty at the University of Maine, Isenhour helped to establish an interdisciplinary research group focused on waste reduction and sustainable waste management in Maine. The research team has drawn together hundreds of waste management professionals, municipal representatives, regulators, and citizen groups to collaboratively research and identify potential solutions to Maine’s waste management challenges. As part of her commitment to this statewide group, Isenhour has served as the lead author on several reports requested by Maine’s Joint Standing Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, including a review of “best practice” state-level policies for waste reduction and recovery. More recently, Isenhour was asked to lead a stakeholder working group for LD1534 “An Act to Address Hunger, Help Farmers, and Reduce Waste.” She delivered a final report of the working group’s findings to the Maine State Legislature in December 2017. Isenhour developed a Maine Community Waste Toolkit, created an exhibit on economic, environmental, and social benefits of Maine’s reuse economy at Hudson Museum, and founded the Human Dimensions of Climate Change Film Series. She is recognized as a leader in service to her profession, serving as President of the Society for Economic Anthropology and a founding member of the Future Earth Network on Sustainable Production and Consumption. Isenhour’s service and public outreach demonstrate the enduring value of the land-grant mission.