Two From ODU Selected For Prestigious SCHEV Award

An assistant professor of English who has pursued research on dialects since growing up in the mountains of North Carolina, and a professor of business management who as a youth had to teach himself as a result of living in Mao’s China, are Old Dominion University’s latest winners of the Outstanding Faculty Award sponsored by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Bridget Anderson and Shaomin Li were among 12 college and university faculty from across the commonwealth who were honored Feb. 20 in Richmond. They each received $5,000. This marks the 10th consecutive year that ODU has had a winner in the highly competitive program, which is funded by the Dominion Foundation. Twenty-two university faculty have been selected for the prestigious award since the program was established in 1991.

Anderson, a sociolinguist who won in the “Rising Star” category, earned her doctorate in 2003 and is in her third year of teaching at ODU. She pushes the boundaries of knowledge through the incorporation of research and scholarship in her classes.

“I want my classroom to be characterized by creative excitement and creative thinking,” said Anderson, who teaches undergraduate English language and linguistics, as well as courses on Phonology and Sociolinguistics at the graduate level. She makes the following promise to her students: “You will never again view language as a passive observer.”

Anderson encourages students to participate in her Tidewater Voices Community Language Study, whose goal is to allow the people of the region to tell their own stories, in their own words and language, thus providing a living cultural and linguistic history that captures what makes this area distinctive.

A recorder of oral histories and personal narratives of residents from the Great Smoky Mountains, Anderson has also conducted linguistic analyses of Cherokee English.

Like Anderson, who resisted advice that she abandon her rural Appalachian accent, Shaomin Li didn’t let others’ opinions and actions get in the way of his educational pursuits. After Mao Tse Tung came to power, Li’s family was one of many driven to the countryside. “I was sent to a farm when I was 13 and taught myself,” he said.

Against all odds, Li completed his pre-college education through self-learning and ultimately passed a nationwide college entrance exam with the highest score in his region.

A leading scholar in his field, Li teaches international business, a subject that not only integrates a wide range of social and administrative theories, but also requires extensive practical experience. His rich business background enables him to shed light on how international trade and investment are actually conducted.

His students are familiar with his “look forward, reason back” advice, which asks them to look forward to figure out what they want to do with their life, and reason back to prepare themselves step by step.