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Chosen by a faculty committee, the recipients of ASCEND Awards were recognized for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion

Faculty, staff and students are being honored for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in the University of Colorado Boulder College of Arts and Sciences.

The winners are the recipients of the third annual awards from ASCEND, or the Arts and Sciences Consortium of Committees on Climate, Equity, Inclusion and Diversity.

The 2023 winners were selected and announced by the A&S Diversity Committee of the Staff Advisory Council, the primary representative body for the college’s faculty, with the goal honoring faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduate students who have “demonstrated a commitment to the principles and actions of diversity” when it comes to curriculum expansion, creative teaching practices, community building endeavors and/or communication, according to Cecilia Pang, who chaired the awards committee.

The 2023 faculty winner is Brian A. Catlos, professor of religious studies, who was responsible for establishing Mediterranean Studies at CU Boulder, both through the CU Mediterranean Studies Group (CUMSG), which he founded in 2010 and directs, and the , which has more than 1,800 members in more than 40 countries. 

The Mediterranean Seminar presents a vision of history of a larger West, stretching from the Indus to the Atlantic, and emphasizing the role of Muslims, Christians and Jews from Africa, Europe and West Asia in this great historico-cultural venture. 

The CUMSG is interdisciplinary and actively supports the work of junior faculty and graduate students through workshops, conferences and panels, and by supporting their travel and attendance at Mediterranean Seminar workshops across North America. 

The group organizes conferences, workshops and guest speakers at CU for faculty, graduate, undergraduate and community audiences. Catlos said it often features scholars from underrepresented groups and emphasizes non-Eurocentric perspectives, offering a rare nexus of intellectual collaboration at CU Boulder. 

Often, these events are proposed by junior faculty, and the group facilitates these visits, thus providing mentoring/professional support to these faculty as well as enriching undergraduate and graduate education by bringing in diverse scholarly perspectives. 

Catlos has been teaching courses that integrate Islamic, Jewish and European studies, particularly the course The Mediterranean Origins of the West (HUMN/RLST3801), which uses the textbook that he co-wrote, The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650. 

Catlos receives no compensation for this work, and he fundraises to support this programming, given that the group receives no regular support from the university.

According to the faculty awards committee, Catlos’ work demonstrates an “impressive commitment to the Ascend Awards’ principles of diversity and inclusion through curriculum, creative teaching practices, community building and communication.”

“I am honored by the 2023 ASCEND award,” Catlos said. “Mediterranean Studies, my specialty, is all about establishing a new meta-narrative for the origins of the modern West—one which incorporates and integrates African, West Asian and European history and focusses on the contributions of diverse peoples and cultures to this process, as well as giving voice to scholars from underrepresented constituencies or whose work focuses on regions, culture or methodologies that have been sidelined by traditional disciplinary approaches and Eurocentric biases.”

The 2023 staff winner is Kirsten Stoltz, who is in charge of the CU Boulder Visiting Artist and Visiting Scholars Program. She works with AAH faculty to identify various speakers/artists to bring to campus and give public lectures. 

“It is an honor to receive the ASCEND award, and I share this with the art and art history faculty and staff with whom I closely collaborate to bring a diverse array of artists and art scholars to engage with CU Boulder students,” Stoltz said. 

“The department is deeply committed to educating students from all backgrounds, and the visiting artist and scholars program is reflective of this mission, believing that the arts have the power to transform individuals and to transform society.”

In her role, Stoltz works with the speakers/artists to schedule studio visits with AAH students. She also works with faculty to secure university grants to pay the honorariums of the speaker/artists.

Stoltz has been instrumental in increasing participation in the event, according to the faculty awards committee.

She develops posters and fliers and advertises the events widely via social media and other electronic media. She also seeks out collaborators in other departments to work on programming enhancements and co-mingling programmatic opportunities, such as Environmental Design, Center of the American West, Conference on World Affairs, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and CU Art Museum. 

Stoltz organized the hosting of events online during COVID and is now slowly getting back to live events. 

The graduate student winner is Sarah Brown, who was assigned to teach American Political Thought this term. The classic syllabus for this course involved a focus on the political thought of the (mostly) white men who have served as the leaders of this country, from the founding (Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, U.S. Constitution), through debates over slavery (typically the Lincoln/Douglas debates), through milestones of Supreme Court jurisprudence in the 19th and 20th centuries amending and interpreting the U.S. Constitution. 

Brown decided from the start to reimagine what this course could be. She gathered ideas from colleagues at other institutions, met for extended conversations with faculty members, and completely rethought the syllabus from the ground up, to include diverse voices and thinking from a wide array of activists, scholars and politicians, reflecting major issues in American political thought. 

Her course—now organized thematically rather than chronologically—incorporates indigenous, African American, feminist and Chicano thought, alongside of canonical works by white men such as Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. 

Taylor Johnson, an undergraduate philosophy major, is receiving the ASCEND award for her work in creating, registering and running the Women in Philosophy undergraduate club at CU Boulder.

Taylor initially had the idea to create such a group to provide a safe and supportive community for gender minorities who are interested in and excited about philosophy, which is still one of the academic disciplines most dominated by men. So, the value of having a specific space on campus for women and gender minorities interested in philosophy has been well-received.

The group Taylor leads is a place where women and non-binary students can feel comfortable expressing opinions and feel empowered in philosophy. 

Not only has the club provided an “intellectually stimulating space specifically for marginalized people, but the readings that drive discussion during meetings are almost always centered on historically underrepresented authors and topics,” according to the faculty awards committee.  

In advance of meetings, Taylor independently researches authors and topics that members have expressed interest in and proceeds to send out weekly emails, including readings, videos and notes on the author and/or topic under discussion. After preparing discussion questions, during each meeting Taylor facilities conversations so that everyone has a chance to speak their opinion. 

At the top of the page: The 2023 ASCEND award winners are (from left to right): Professor Brian Catlos, graduate student Sarah Brown and undergraduate Taylor Johnson. Not pictured: staff member Kirsten Stoltz.