Three
Smith Faculty Honored for Teaching
Three faculty members
were named recently as winners of the Kathleen Compton
Sherrerd ’54 and John J. F. Sherrerd
Prize for Distinguished Teaching.
They are (see individual biographies
below): Kimberly Kono, assistant professor of East Asian
languages and literatures; Beth Powell, lecturer in psychology;
and Kate Queeney, associate professor of chemistry.
is given annually to Smith faculty members in recognition
of their distinguished teaching records and demonstrated
enthusiasm and excellence.
The award was established in 2002 with a generous contribution
to Smith by the late Kathleen Sherrerd and John Sherrerd,
who died earlier this month. Their donation was given with
the specific purpose of initiating an annual prize to recognize
outstanding teaching at Smith.
The three 2009 Sherrerd Prize
recipients will be honored during a presentation of the
awards on October 22 at 4:30 p.m. in Weinstein Auditorium,
Wright Hall.
Kimberly Kono
 Kimberly
Kono joined the college’s Department of East
Asian Languages and Literatures in 2001 after completing
her undergraduate, master's and doctoral studies at
the University of California, Berkeley. At Smith, she teaches
courses on modern Japanese literature and language. Her course “Constructions
of Gender in Modern Japanese Women’s Writing,” for
example, explores the intersections of gender and national
identity in selected poetry, fiction and memoirs by Japanese
women throughout the 20th Century. Kono is on the advisory
committees for the Program in East Asian Studies and the
Program for the Study of Women and Gender. Her book Romantic
and Familial Love in Japanese Colonial Literature is
forthcoming from Palgrave. She was the recipient of a Picker
Fellowship at Smith in 2003. In 2004-05 she taught at Cornell
University as a Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching-Research Fellow.
Beth Powell
 Beth
Powell has taught at Smith for 29 years as a member of the
psychology department and neuroscience program, but the college
has always been part of her life. Powell is the daughter
of Anne Hall Powell (Anne Marie Hall) ’50,
as well as a member of the Smith class of 1978, and the
mother of Amanda Anderson ’09J. Powell earned her
masters and doctoral degrees nearby at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst. At Smith she teaches courses in
psychology and neuroscience research methods, physiology
of behavior, psychopharmacology, and a seminar in neuroscience,
ethics, and policy. She has also served as a visiting lecturer
at the University of Massachusetts and taught for 11 years
in a PsyD program at Antioch/New England College. Powell’s
areas of interest include the biological basis of clinical
disorders and treatment of memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s
disease.
Kate Queeney
 Kate
Queeney joined the Smith Department of Chemistry in 2000
after completing undergraduate studies at Williams College,
earning her doctoral degree in physical chemistry at Harvard
University, and following two years as a post-doctoral fellow
in the Department of Optical Physics at Lucent Technologies.
Queeney’s
research currently focuses on silicon surface chemistry and
the adsorptioin of biomolecules to solid surfaces. At Smith,
she teaches courses in general and physical chemistry, instrumental
analysis and materials chemistry. Queeney was the recipient
of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from
the National Science Foundation in 2004, an honor among the
most prestigious for new faculty members. Queeney currently
serves as faculty director of advising at Smith and since
2007 has co-directed the college’s AEMES (Achieving
Excellence in Mathematics, Engineering and Sciences) Program.
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