Professor Marsha Rozenblit And Catalina Toala Win College Service Awards

The College of Arts and Humanities’ annual faculty and staff convocation was a momentous occasion for History facult

The College of Arts and Humanities’ annual faculty and staff convocation was a momentous occasion for History faculty and staff.  The ceremony, held in the Clarice Smith’s Gildenhorn Recital Hall on the afternoon of September 23, 2014, welcomed new faculty members, announced promotions and tenures, and highlighted faculty, staff, and student service.  Two of history’s own, Marsha Rozenblit and Catalina Toala, were singled out as winners of this year’s distinguished service awards.

Marsha Rozenblit, Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies in the department, received ARHU’s Distinguished Faculty Service Award.  A member of the History department since 1978, and a scholar of Austrian, Jewish, and Habsburg history, Rozenblit’s commendation noted that she is “a veritable force of nature” who “is always willing to help out … to make sure that all the countless jobs necessary for faculty governance are completed.”  In presenting the award, Assistant Dean Julie Wright, too, observed how Rozenblit’s infectious laugh and good humor possesses the power to lighten spirits and make work easy. 

Catalina Toala, for her part, was honored with ARHU’s Distinguished Service Award for College Service.  Her nomination noted that she is a “one-woman finance department” who “from a pint-sized office manages to handle all the business and finance transactions of one of the larger units on campus...She performs a considerable workload in a way that seems effortless, so effortless that she is often called upon to perform duties in other units as well.” In presenting Toala’s award, Dean Wright also noted that in her sixteen years of service to the department and college, Catalina had more and more taken on the role of the college’s touchstone, offering essential advice, praise, and criticism of its operations.