Stetson University Associate Professor of English Dr. Jamil Khader received this year’s Hand Community Impact Award. Professor of American Studies and History Dr. Paul Croce and Associate Professor of Geography Dr. J. Anthony Abbott received Hand Awards for Research, Creative and Professional Activity.

Stetson College of Law alumna Dolly Hand and her husband, Homer, established the awards to applaud faculty members who are not only dedicated teachers but who also have notable achievements in scholarship or creative work in their areas of expertise and who have made a difference in their local or larger communities. This year’s awards were presented at Spring Commencement.

As co-chair of Stetson’s Diversity Council, Khader has done significant work to put Stetson’s values into practice in the community, raising awareness of diversity issues and global events. He organized panel discussions related to Islamophobia, the Egyptian revolution and the crisis in political civility, and pioneered the Veiled-for-a-Day project – in which students of all faiths were invited to wear a Muslim hijab for a short time – to inspire dialogue on touchy topics.

A Palestinian from Israel, Khader earned his Ph.D. in English Literature at The Pennsylvania State University, and joined the Stetson faculty in 2000. His teaching and research focus on transnationalism, especially the political and aesthetic dimensions underpinning the ethics of cross-cultural communication, human rights and globalization. He is the author of Cartographies of Transnationalism in Postcolonial Feminisms: Geography, Culture, Identity, Politics (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, forthcoming), and is the co-editor, with Molly Rothenberg, of a collection of essays on the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, entitled, Žižek Now: Current Perspectives in Žižek Studies (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press forthcoming). His articles appeared in national and international journals, including Children’s Literature, The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Feminist Studies, College Literature (2 articles), MELUS: The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, Ariel: Review of International English Literature, and other journals and collections.

Croce, a member of the Stetson faculty since 1988, is a scholar of American intellectual and cultural history who focuses on the intersection of science, culture and religion. He uses historical examples as he inspires students to explore contemporary American dilemmas. Croce teaches courses on environmental issues, war and peace, health care, Darwinism and the divine, and the 1950s and ’60s, and is regularly quoted and/or published in the media and in professional journals as an expert on contemporary culture and politics. He earned his Ph.D. in American civilization from Brown University.

Croce is one of the foremost authorities on American psychologist and philosopher William James. His two-year term as president of the international William James Society was completed in December, and his second book on James is soon to be published by Indiana University Press. Croce organized the William James Society Symposium, In the Footsteps of William James, in August 2010, cosponsored with the Chocorua (N.H.) Community Association and Harvard University’s Houghton Library in conjunction with its James Centennial Exhibition, “Life is in the Transitions.” For virtual visits, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/wjsymposium/  for photos of the event, to http://www.flickr.com/people/wjsymposium/  for more information, and to http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/james/  for the Harvard exhibition.

A Stetson faculty member since 2005, Abbott is the director of Stetson’s environmental science program. His research interests focus on renewable energy systems and policy, carbon accounting and sustainable agriculture, and he teaches the class at Stetson that conducts the university’s carbon audit each year. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Abbott has published in prestigious journals including Society and Natural Resources and The Professional Geographer and is a regular presenter at professional conferences on such topics as climate policy and wind power. He shares his expertise through the President’s Climate Commitment and the Volusia County Green Ribbon Panel on environmental standards.