MONMOUTH, Ill. — The recipients of two of the three 2009 Hatch Academic Excellence Awards at Monmouth College have been named.

Steve Buban, professor of sociology and anthropology, received the Distinguished Service Award. Sharing the Distinguished Scholarship and Research Award are political science professor Farhat Haq and associate professor of sociology and anthropology Petra Kuppinger.

Monmouth College will announce the recipient of the Hatch Award for Distinguished Teaching at the President’s Homecoming Gala on Oct. 9. Nominations for that award are solicited exclusively from alumni.

Funded by 1957 graduate W. Jerome Hatch, a retired executive for American National Can, the awards were established in 2004 to recognize outstanding work by MC faculty in the areas of teaching, scholarship and service. Through cash stipends, they honor faculty who have excelled in their academic disciplines and who have served as an inspiration to both their students and their colleagues.

The Hatch Award for Distinguished Service is awarded to “individuals and groups that do especially noteworthy work for the institution.” Buban has chaired almost all of the college’s standing committees in his 32-year career and has chaired the sociology and anthropology department for many years, including the past 10. Aside from normal committee and department work, he has served on various ad hoc groups and taskforces and chaired the most recent search for an academic dean. Buban has also represented Monmouth in several capacities with the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, including 18 years with the consortium’s Urban Studies Program.

Criteria for the Distinguished Scholarship and Research Award include: participating in faculty-student research projects leading to publication; pedagogical research to improve classroom teaching; creative activity that explains the research; and traditional research in peer-reviewed journals.

Haq has published numerous articles in books and journals – including prestigious journals such as Asian Survey and Signs – and has recently started using political blogs in order to reach her audience. In her nomination letter, she received the following phrase: “Her inner drive to engage intellectually with the academic community places her in that rare category of scholar who has chosen to live the life of thought and discussion, or what Aristotle would call an ethical life.”

Since coming to Monmouth in 2000, Kuppinger has published eight professional articles. Most of her work stems from dissertation research in Cairo, Egypt, where she spent years doing fieldwork. Additional research in Stuttgart, Germany, has given Kuppinger a new interest in German Islam, which she hopes to turn into a book. She will present a related paper about female leadership in Muslim communities at Oxford University next month.