Three CAS Professors Earn SUNY’s ‘Distinguished’ Ranking

ALBANY, N.Y. (Dec. 3, 2020) — Three professors from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) have been honored by SUNY for their professionalism, scholarship and service. 

Psychology Professor Laurie Feldman and Art and Art History Professor JoAnne Carson were named distinguished professors, a designation that indicates national or international prominence and significant contributions in research, scholarship or creative endeavors.

History Professor Richard Hamm was named a distinguished teaching professor, a designation signifying outstanding and consistent teaching mastery over multiple years.

“We congratulate professors Carson, Feldman and Hamm on their elevation to SUNY’s highest academic rank, that of distinguished professor and distinguished teaching professor,” said Provost Carol Kim. “Their outstanding professional attainments mark them as exemplary scholars and teachers. I am especially pleased to welcome three new members to the remarkable group of faculty who comprise the SUNY Distinguished Academy. All our distinguished professors help to burnish the University’s stature and reputation as a center of academic excellence and a Carnegie R1 institution.”

Laurie Feldman

Feldman, who has been with the University for 30 years, is a global leader in the cognitive science of language. Her research focus is on how people manage multiple linguistic codes, including multiple languages and writing systems, and the combination of speech and text and emojis and text.

She had published 85 peer-reviewed journal articles, more than 30 book chapters, many technical reports and book reviews and is the editor of the book Morphological Aspects of Language Processing. she has presented nearly 200 times at research universities and scholarly conferences nationally and internationally and her research and collaborative projects have been supported by more than $42 million in funding, including grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Feldman’s work has brought international recognition to the University. She has collaborated with researchers from Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, China, the Netherlands, Israel and Germany, and has been a visiting researcher or professor at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, and at universities in China and the former Yugoslavia. She also received Fulbright Scholar awards to study in Israel and Thailand.

JoAnne Carson

Carson joined the University in 1985. Her work, initially as a painter and then as a sculptor, has been exhibited widely across the United States, including at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, the Whitney Museum in New York City and the Frederick Weisman Collection in Los Angeles.

Her extensive list of peer-reviewed honors includes the prestigious Prix de Rome Fellowship in Painting from the American Academy in Rome, the Purchase Prize in Sculpture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Fellowship in the Fine Arts, considered one of the highest awards an artist can earn.

Carson also is highly commended for her classroom work as a teacher and mentor to undergraduate and graduate students and to graduate teaching assistants. Many of her students have become art professors.

Richard Hamm

Hamm, like Feldman, joined the University in 1990 and has been known as “a highly productive scholar, an engaged campus citizen and an incredibly committed instructor and mentor,” according to one of his nominators. Colleagues call him a gifted teacher, citing his engaging and challenging classroom style, his consistency in holding students to the highest standards and his ability to incorporate his research into lessons.

Hamm has received the “Most Influential Person” award from the University’s Honors College, as well as the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the University at Albany Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2004, he received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Teaching award.

Hamm’s research focuses on the interaction of law and society in the American past, including how ideas, individuals and structures have combined to shape law and how law has determined the courses of government officials, reformers and ordinary people.

“These three recipients embody the spirit of the College of Arts and Sciences to support scholarship and creative endeavors, promote exceptional teaching and mentoring to our students, and contribute in significant ways to our University community,” said CAS Dean Jeanette Altarriba. “Their contributions in each of these areas are highly commendable, but most important, their ability to guide and support our students has led to students’ success in their career endeavors. They are extraordinary representatives of our College at every level.”