Laura Hein will be honored with this year’s Provost Award for Exemplary Service. She is the Harold H. and Virginia Anderson Professor of History at Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
Given annually by Northwestern’s Office of the Provost, the award recognizes full-time faculty members who provide outstanding service to the University or significant contributions to their individual units and are exemplars of good academic citizenship.
Honorees receive a $5,000 award and will be recognized during a reception in the spring.
Hein is being recognized for her long record of extraordinary service to the department, the school and the University, using her scholarship to create an intellectual vision and strategically push for global studies at the University.
A nominee said of Hein: “Laura worked tirelessly to make Asia — and the non-Western world beyond Asia — a presence on our campus,” and in so doing, has transformed the University.
Hein has consistently advocated for non-Western history in her department and for a more global perspective in the College and University. She chaired committees such as the Globalization Committee for one NU strategic plan and led the effort that established the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. More recently, Hein demonstrated her visionary thinking as chair of the dean of libraries search by pushing the committee to think in new ways about the libraries’ role in information systems.