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CC professor named state´s ´Higher Education Multicultural Faculty of the Year´

October 13, 2004

For immediate release - Oct. 13, 2004 Contact: Eric Cárdenas (860) 439-2508; eric.cardenas@conncoll.edu

Connecticut College professor named state's 'Higher Education Multicultural Faculty of the Year'

NEW LONDON, Conn. - Sandy Grande, associate professor of education, has been named "Higher Education Multicultural Faculty of the Year" by the Connecticut chapter of the National Association of Multicultural Education (NAME).

Grande will be honored for "the tremendous impact she has had on moving Connecticut College towards genuine transformation around issues of multiculturalism and diversity."

She will be recognized at an awards ceremony at the Connecticut Conference on Multicultural Education on Oct. 18 in Hartford. NAME is an international organization that brings together individuals and groups with an interest in multicultural education from all levels of education, different academic disciplines and diverse educational institutions and occupations. The Connecticut chapter has conveyed this award annually since 1998.

Grande was recently named special advisor to Connecticut College President Norman Fainstein for institutional equity and diversity. She is working with Fainstein to advance the college's pluralism goals, which include establishing an intellectual home for diversity and helping to build a genuinely pluralistic collegiate community.

Grande joined Connecticut College in 2000. Her research focus is in Native American education and critical theory as it applies to education. She also serves on the college's Strategic Planning Steering Committee, which has overseen the college's creation of a five-year strategic plan.

Fran Hoffmann, dean of the faculty, said Grande is a tireless and effective advocate of multicultural understanding and social justice practice on the campus.

"Her impact cannot be overstated," Hoffmann said. "She has enriched our curriculum, influenced our policies and practices, mentored countless students, served on and contributed to countless task forces and committees and kept a clear eye on our loftiest aspirations even as she works in the here and now to effect change one step at a time."

In 2000-01 Grande was sponsored as a Ford Fellow by the American Indian Leadership program at Pennsylvania State University. She has also served as a member of the executive board of the American Educational Studies Association and on the Board of Trustees for the Interdistrict School for Arts and Communication (ISAAC) in New London. Her book, "Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political Thought," was published by Rowan and Littlefield (2004). She has also written several articles, including "Beyond the Ecologically Noble Savage: Deconstructing the White Man's Indian" in the "Journal of Environmental Ethics"; "Critical Theory and American Indian Identity and Intellectualism" in "The International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education" and "American Indian Geographies of Identity and Power: At the Crossroads of Indigena and Mestizaje" in "Harvard Educational Review."

Ranked among the most selective private liberal arts colleges in the nation, Connecticut College enrolls 1,850 men and women from 44 states and 50 countries. The college is known for interdisciplinary studies, international programs, funded internships, student-faculty research and service learning. Founded in 1911, the college operates under an 82-year-old honor code. The college is located at 270 Mohegan Ave, New London, about two hours by car from Boston and New York. The 750-acre campus is an arboretum overlooking Long Island Sound. For more information, visit www.connecticutcollege.edu.

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For media inquiries contact: Amy Martin (860) 439-2526; a.martin@conncoll.edu