BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Illinois Wesleyan University will present the 2003 DuPont Award for Teaching Excellence to Carolyn Nadeau, associate professor of Spanish at the university. The $1,000 teacher-scholar award, IWU’s top teaching honor, was announced at the university’s annual Honors Day Convocation Wednesday (April 17) in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall.

As part of Honors Day 2003, Nadeau will receive the DuPont Award, which is sponsored by DuPont Agricultural Products, Inc., of El Paso, Ill., a subsidiary of the Delaware-based chemical industry leader, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.

The DuPont honoree is selected by IWU’s Promotion and Tenure Committee based on nominations received from members of the faculty. The award recognizes teaching, scholarship, and service. At Wednesday’s convocation, Tari Renner, professor and chair of political science who received the 2002 DuPont teaching award, presented an address, "The Evolution of a Political Animal."

Nadeau, who joined the IWU faculty in 1994, received her doctorate from Penn State University. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia (1985) and a master’s degree from New York University (1989).

Nadeau specializes in 16th-century and 17th-century Spanish literature. She is the author of Women of the Prologue: Imitation, Myth, and Magic in Don Quixote I (Bucknell University Press, 2002), which explores the significance of the women of the prologue in Don Quixote I and Cervantes's impact on the pressing question of literary continuation and cultural authority in Golden Age Spain. She has also written on mythological female figures in the comedia and the role of the wife and mother in sixteenth-century advice manuals. Currently she is researching food representation in Golden Age texts.

In addition to teaching courses in Golden Age and Medieval literature and cultural as well as all levels of Spanish language courses, Nadeau directed Illinois Wesleyan’s London Program in the fall of 2000.

In announcing Nadeau’s award, IWU Provost Janet McNew described Nadeau as "a born teacher" who "seems to regard teaching as an energizing opportunity for learning and to consider the activity of learning together as a privilege for herself as for the students."

As part of the Honors Day Convocation, members of IWU’s Class of 2002 were recognized for their scholastic and activity honors.

Carolyn Nadeau
2003 DuPont Award Winner