Kershaw receives Alumni Award for Excellence in Graduate Academic Advising

Terry Kershaw, of Blacksburg, a chair and associate professor of Africana Studies at Virginia Tech, received the 2005 Alumni Award for Excellence in Graduate Academic Advising.

The Alumni Association established the Alumni Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Academic Advising to recognize faculty who have been particularly dedicated and effective in the advising of undergraduate students. Faculty and students may nominate candidates for consideration by a committee of former recipients of this award.

Kershaw's research and scholarship range from African American Leadership to the Development of Paradigms and Research Methods in Africana Studies. Before coming to Virginia Tech in 1999, Kershaw taught at Antioch College, Temple University, the College of Wooster, and Whitworth College, and held the Mini Lilly Chair at Marquette University. At Virginia Tech, he has served as director, chair, or acting director of The Race and Social Policy Center, Africana Studies, The Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Black Studies, and Women's Studies. He is editor of The International Journal of Africana Studies and a member of the editorial board for African Studies Review and has been co-editor of The Journal of Black Studies, among others.

He is a member of the board for the National Council for Black Studies, where he has served as a member of the nomination committee and the chair of the ethics and professionalism committee. He received a B.A. in Sociology and Black Studies from the State University of New York, Cortland, an M.A. in Black Studies, with emphasis in history, economic development, and community organization, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Washington State University, with an emphasis in demography, human ecology, environmental sociology, and social organization.

The College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences embraces the arts, humanities, social and human sciences, and education. The college nurtures intellect and spirit, enlightens decision-making, inspires positive change, and improves the quality of life for people of all ages. It is home to the departments of apparel, housing and resource management, communication, educational leadership and policy studies, English, foreign languages and literatures, history; human development, interdisciplinary studies, music, philosophy, political science, ROTC, science and technology in society, sociology, teaching and learning, and theatre arts.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.