The Graves Award is presented annually to a member of the faculty in recognition of sustained excellence in teaching.
Jonathan Arries, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialty in Foreign Language Education. His dissertation title was “Ideology and Social Studies Textbooks Used in the Education of Hispanic Americans,” and his current area of research is the scholarship of teaching and learning, focusing on service-learning in two different locations: in the Latino community in the U.S. and also in Nicaragua. His most recent contribution to that field is an article titled “Searching for Conscientização: Mentoring Fieldwork in International Service-learning,” coauthored with alumna Lauren Jones and published in Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture 9.1 (2009). Professor Arries was also associate editor of Juntos: Communty Partnerships in Spanish and Portuguese, Heinle, 2004. Professor Arries’ courses address such topics as action research in Nicaraguan schools, Hispanic Cultural Studies and service-learning in the Latino community, dialects of Spanish and national identity, farm worker culture and art, and medical interpretation for clinics that serve farm workers on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Throughout his distinguished career, Prof. Arries has received several awards, including the President’s Award for Service to the Community (2005), the University Chair for Teaching Excellence (2002), the Pew National Scholarship for Carnegie Scholars (2001), the VA COOL Faculty Award (2000), and the Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching (2000), among others.