(Posted November 14, 2000)

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education have named Dr. David Hsiung as Professor of the Year in the state of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hsiung, the W. Newton and Hazel A. Long Professor of History at Juniata College, was selected from among 20 professors nominated from Pennsylvania.

Dr. Hsiung earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1983. He earned his master?s degree in 1985 and completed his Ph.D. in history in 1991, both from the University of Michigan. Dr. Hsiung has taught at Juniata College since 1991, and now holds the rank of associate professor. In 1997 the college awarded him the W. Newton and Hazel A. Long Chair in History. He received Juniata's Junior Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1995.

Dr. Hsiung teaches introductory history courses and advanced courses in North American Environmental History, The American Revolution, and Twentieth Century American Wars as Social and Personal Experience. In addition, Dr. Hsiung teaches in the college?s innovative, first-year College Writing Seminar.

The Appalachian Studies Association and the University Press of Kentucky conferred the 1996 Appalachian Studies Award for Best Original Manuscript for his book Two Worlds in the Tennessee Mountains: Exploring the Origins of Appalachian Stereotypes, which was published in 1997. Dr. Hsiung is currently working on a book that will examine Indian-white relations in colonial Pennsylvania as well as the methods historians use to understand the past.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) established the Professors of the Year program in 1981 and works in cooperation with the Carnegie Foundation and various higher education associations in its administration.

This year, there are winners in 44 states and the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. CASE assembled two preliminary panels of judges to select finalists. The Carnegie Foundation then convened the third and final panel, which selected the four nation winners and state winners. Hsiung was selected from 476 faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded in 1905 by Andrew Carnegie, "to do all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignity the profession of teaching." The Foundation is the only advanced study center for teachers in the world and the third-oldest foundation in the nation. Its non-profit research activities are produced by a small group of distinguished scholars.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is the largest international association of educational institutions, with nearly 2,900 colleges, universities, and independent elementary and secondary schools in 44 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Representing these institutions are more than 21,000 professionals in the disciplines of alumni relations, communications, and fund raising. Additional affiliates include educationally related nonprofit organizations and commercial firms.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.