Department of Religious Studies

The winner of this year’s Trustees Teaching Award is Sonia Velázquez. Prof. Velázquez is regularly praised by her students for opening their eyes to new worlds, teaching them to reflect on fundamental questions and linger over the details of paintings, poems, and stories from the past in order to reimagine life today. In innovative and challenging courses, from “Nuns and Guns” to “Work Hard, Pray Hard,” to “Textual Mediation,” in large lecture classes and small graduate seminars, Prof. Velázquez encourages students to appreciate the value of silence, and slow, careful exploration as well as of lively debate, ardent questions, and thoughtful reading and writing. She is, moreover, an exemplary mentor of undergraduate and graduate students alike, serving as the faculty advisor for “Invocations: Undergraduate Journal of Religious Studies”; as co-sponsor, with graduate student Josie Wenig, of “PRACTICE,” the Spring 2020 Teaching Religion in Public workshop series; as advisor to award-winning undergraduate papers and honors theses; and committee member to numerous graduate advising, exam, and dissertation committees. In Spring 2018, Prof. Velázquez was awarded the Latino Faculty and Staff Council Distinguished Faculty Award—further evidence of the range and significance of her outstanding teaching.