Dr. Binod Paudyal, AAST Lecturer, Receives Donna B. Hamilton Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Join AAST in hearty congratulations to Professor Binod Paudyal!

Dr. Paudyal is the recipient of the Donna B. Hamilton Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in an Office of Undergraduate Studies Program. Awards are based solely on student nominations and are solicited from across campus. From the many nominations received, the selection committee was most impressed by the student experience in Dr. Paudyal's AAST200, 201, 351, and 498W classes!

The committee shared these beautiful student reflections from the nomination materials:

“Dr. Paudyal never failed to make the class feel included, and never shied away from using personal experiences to enrich our learning experiences. One class in particular stands out - when discussing immigrant experiences, Dr. Paudyal shared a couple of deeply personal experiences with racism and discrimination that he faced as a new immigrant. His work ethic, how he's constantly showing up for his students, and the obvious effort going into each lesson, makes him a great role model.”

“As an Asian American Studies minor, for example, I was looking forward to taking classes which would allow me to explore my South Asian background in an academic setting. However, as a sophomore, I realized that no such courses existed in our expansive course listing, despite the large number of South Asian students and student groups on campus. Since then, the AAST program has hired a South Asian faculty member - Dr. Paudyal - and added a number of other South Asian course listings. Dr. Paudyal is the sole reason I was able to continually explore my heritage in an academic setting. Having personally experienced the almost cathartic impact that these classes have had already on myself and my peers, I cannot understate the impact that Dr. Paudyal's constant push for greater inclusivity and openness to tailoring his classes to cater to what we, the students, crave in terms of representation, has had.”

Thank you to the students who took time to nominate Professor Paudyal and our warmest congratulations. We are so grateful for Dr. Paudyal's dedication to our students and to the AAST program!